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Salt Codfish Balls

A ball made from mashed potatoes, codfish, egg, and fried in beef fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Salt Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and mash

  1. Cover the potatoes with boiling water and cook until tender.

  2. Add the codfish on top of the potatoes and cook until heated through.

  3. Drain the potatoes and codfish, then mash together and season to taste.

  4. Add the beaten egg and mix until light and fluffy.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into smooth balls.

  2. Fry the balls in hot beef fat until golden brown.

  3. Drain carefully and serve immediately.

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 + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + beeftop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Potatoes
Starch that cooks into a soft, mashable base that gives the balls their body.
Codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and salty, flaky texture in the mixture.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in hot beef fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the balls absorb oil and turn greasy instead of browning quickly. Hot fat sears the surface, forming a crisp golden crust that helps hold the shape.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, beef. 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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