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Codfish Balls

Codfish Balls are fried balls made from boiled cod, mashed potatoes, butter, and optional egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

  1. Soak the codfish pieces in lukewarm water for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the skin and bones, then shred the fish into small pieces.

  3. Place the fish in a pot with cold water and bring to a boil.

  4. Change the water and bring to a boil again.

Shape and fry

  1. Mix the hot codfish with the mashed potatoes and butter until well combined.

  2. For lighter balls, add a beaten egg before shaping.

  3. Form the mixture into flat cakes or round balls.

  4. Fry in hot lard or drippings 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. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 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

Codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaky texture of the mixture.
Potatoes
Bind the fish together and add body, so the mixture holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.
Egg
Helps bind the mixture and makes the balls lighter and more tender.

The step that matters

Soaking and changing the water. Soaking and boiling twice draws out salt from the cured codfish. Skipping or shortening this leaves the fish too salty, and the balls will taste harsh.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg. 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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