Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Codfish Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Cut codfish into pieces and soak in lukewarm water for 1 hour.
Pick the codfish into pieces, discarding skin and bones.
Cover with cold water, bring to a boil, change the water, and boil again.
Mix the codfish thoroughly with mashed and seasoned potatoes while both are still hot.
Form the mixture into cakes or balls.
Fry in hot lard until golden brown.
For lighter balls, add 1 beaten egg before forming.
If using cold potatoes, reheat and add a little cream and butter.
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, butter):
- Leekfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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