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Fish Balls

A dish of boiled cod and mashed potatoes formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes.

  2. Wash the fish.

  3. Put the fish and potatoes in a stewpan and cover with boiling water.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft, but do not let them become soggy.

Make and fry the balls

  1. Drain all the water and mash the mixture until creamy and light.

  2. Add the butter, onion juice, pepper, and salt if needed.

  3. When slightly cool, add the beaten egg.

  4. Shape the mixture into balls using a tablespoon.

  5. Fry no more than four or five at a time for 1 minute.

  6. Drain on unglazed brown paper.

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt codfish
Provides the main savoury flavour and the flaky body of the fish balls.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, so the mixture mashes light and holds its shape.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls hold together when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Boil without letting the potatoes become soggy. Overboiled potatoes absorb water and turn gluey, so the mash becomes wet and loose and the balls may fall apart in the fat. Drain well and mash while the potatoes are still firm and dry enough to hold together.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, butter, 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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