Skip to main content
Main

Fish Balls

Fish balls made from salt fish, potatoes, butter, egg, salt, and pepper, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Put the flaked salt fish and potatoes in a stew pan.

  2. Cover with boiling water and cook until the potatoes are tender.

  3. Drain and mash the potatoes and fish in the same pot.

Shape and fry

  1. Add the butter, beaten egg, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  2. Drop spoonfuls into a frying basket and fry in deep fat.

  3. Drain and serve.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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 fish
Provides the savory, salty flavour that defines the fish balls.
Potatoes
Form the starchy base that mashes into a soft, cohesive mixture.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls hold their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls into a frying basket and fry in deep fat.. If the mixture is too wet or the fat is not hot enough, the balls can absorb oil and fall apart or turn greasy. Frying at proper heat sets the outside quickly so the inside stays tender.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, butter, 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.

More fish balls recipes

Cod 40Salt 10Boston 6Cornmeal 3 See all 109 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes