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Cod-fish Balls

A savory dish of mashed potatoes mixed with codfish, formed into balls, coated in cracker crumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cod-fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Drain the water and mash the potatoes finely.

  3. Mix in the soaked codfish, butter, and coarse sea salt.

  4. Stir in the beaten egg and whip until light.

  5. Let the mixture cool, then form it into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot lard or shortening until light 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. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that mashes smooth and holds the fish mixture together.
Codfish
Supplies the main flavour and savory character of the fish balls.
Egg
Binds the mixture and, when whipped, adds lightness to the texture.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer coating during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before forming the balls. A warm, soft mash is sticky and hard to shape, and it may fall apart or absorb too much oil. Cooling firms the starch so the balls hold their shape in the hot fat.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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