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Cod Fish Balls

Cod fish balls made with flaked cod, mashed potatoes, cream, eggs, butter, and pepper, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cod Fish Balls

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cod Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the fish overnight.

  2. Remove any bones and flake the fish into pieces.

Make the mixture

  1. Mash the creamed potatoes and mix in the flaked fish.

  2. Add the slightly beaten eggs, butter, and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into balls.

  2. Fry the balls until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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 and flavour of the balls.
Irish potatoes
Add bulk and a starchy base that holds the fish together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls keep their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the texture and helping the outside brown.
Cream
Adds moisture, keeping the mashed potato soft and smooth.

The step that matters

Frying the balls. Browning comes from surface heat, so the oil must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too low, the balls soak up oil and turn greasy; if too high, the outside burns before the centre heats through and the fish cooks.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, cream, egg, pepper. 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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