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Fish Balls

Fish balls made with mashed potatoes, codfish, egg, butter, pepper, and salt, then coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes, shredded codfish, beaten egg, butter, pepper, and salt until well combined.

  2. Roll the mixture in egg.

  3. Coat the mixture in breadcrumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the balls in deep fat 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  4. Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 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

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body that holds the fish balls together.
Shredded codfish
Supplies the main flavor and a flaky texture to the mixture.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture and helps the coating adhere to the outside.
Butter
Adds richness and a little fat to soften the mixture.

The step that matters

Frying in deep fat. The fat must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly. If it is too cool, the breadcrumbs absorb oil, turn greasy, and the centers may stay cold while the outside overcooks.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Peanutfits about as well
  2. Walnutthe original
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, 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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