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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from salted codfish, mashed potatoes, butter, egg, and spices, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the codfish and mashed potatoes in a bowl.

  2. Add melted butter, beaten egg, pepper, and salt if needed, then mix lightly.

  3. Shape the mixture into flat balls, handling them gently.

  4. Roll each ball in flour and dredge with additional pepper.

  5. Prepare the balls the night before and fry them in the morning.

Cook and serve

  1. When ready to cook, roll the balls in beaten egg and then in flour.

  2. Fry in deep fat until golden brown.

  3. Serve on a hot platter with boiled potatoes and egg sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaky texture of the fish balls.
White potatoes
Bind the fish into a soft mixture and give the interior a tender, fluffy body.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and, in the coating, helps flour stick and crisp when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that browns during frying and helps the outside hold together.

The step that matters

Mix lightly and shape gently. Overworking mashed potato develops a gluey, dense texture, and rough handling breaks the balls apart. Light mixing keeps the interior tender and the balls intact in the hot fat.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, egg, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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