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White Fish Balls

A dish of fried fish balls made from mashed white fish, creamed potatoes, cream sauce, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

White Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Blend the cold mashed fish with the creamed Irish potatoes and cream sauce until thoroughly combined.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, pepper, coarse sea salt, grated onion, and grated celery. Mix well.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into hot fat and fry until golden brown.

  2. Drain on brown paper before serving.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold fish
Forms the main body of the fish balls and gives them their flavour.
Creamed irish potatoes
Adds body and softness, helping the mixture hold together while frying.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the fish balls tender inside.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape and set when fried.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into hot fat. The fat must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the balls absorb oil, turn greasy, and may fall apart before they set.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, cream, sauce, egg, pepper, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, cream, sauce, egg, pepper, onion. 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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