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Cod Fish Balls

Cod fish balls are made by mixing salted cod with boiled potatoes, butter, egg, and seasonings, then frying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cod Fish Balls

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 ↓

Cod Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the salted cod fish in cold water and soak in cold water for 1–2 hours. Drain the fish.

Cook the fish and potatoes

  1. Mix the fish with the potatoes in a pot of boiling water until the potatoes are soft.

  2. Drain the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Return the drained mixture to the saucepan.

  4. Mash the fish and potatoes together.

Shape and fry

  1. Add the butter, beaten egg, pepper, and salt if needed.

  2. Beat the mixture lightly with a fork.

  3. Drop rounded tablespoons of the mixture into hot fat.

  4. Fry for 1 minute.

  5. Drain on brown paper.

  6. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

Salted cod fish
Provides the main savoury, salty flavour and the fish texture of the balls.
Potatoes
Adds starch and soft body that bulks the mixture and holds the fish together.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister interior.

The step that matters

Drop the mixture into hot fat. The mixture is soft and loose. Hot fat sets the outside quickly so the balls keep their shape and brown, instead of soaking up oil and falling apart.

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.

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