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Fish Balls and Bacon

Fish balls made from mashed fish, salt, pepper, and bacon, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Fish and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,948 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fish Balls and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the medium-sized fish and mash it.

  2. Add salt and pepper, then mix everything together well.

Shape and cook

  1. Shape the mixture into balls or cakes.

  2. Fry the balls or cakes until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with slices of slightly cooked bacon.

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. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the balls or cakes, giving them their substance and flavour.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savoury fat and flavour when served alongside the fish.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. Frying over sufficient heat browns the outside through the Maillard reaction, building flavour and a crisp crust. Too little heat leaves the balls pale, soggy, and possibly undercooked inside.

“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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