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Codfish Balls

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes and dried codfish, served with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish mash

  1. Pare potatoes, cut into cubes, and add codfish.

  2. Cover with water and bring to a boil.

  3. Pour off water, add fresh water, and continue cooking until tender.

  4. Drain and mash the potatoes and codfish mixture.

  5. Add beaten egg and milk to the mash.

Fry the balls

  1. Drop by tablespoons into deep hot Crisco.

  2. Fry until brown.

Make the sauce

  1. Blend Crisco and flour together.

  2. Stir in hot milk.

  3. Cook until thick.

  4. Add chopped hard-boiled eggs to the sauce just before serving.

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

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

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Bulk and starch that bind the mash and give the balls a soft, fluffy interior.
Codfish
Provides the salted, savory fish flavor that defines the dish.
Egg
Binds the mash so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mash and creates the body of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce with the fat, giving it a smooth, cohesive texture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and a firm, mild texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in deep hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the balls absorb grease and turn heavy and oily; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre heats through. Dropping in moderate spoonfuls keeps the temperature steady.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, 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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