Skip to main content
Main

Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are made from boiled codfish and potatoes, mixed with seasoning, formed into balls, battered, coated in cracker dust, and fried.

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

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

  1. Soak the codfish in cold water overnight.

  2. Boil the codfish in 3 quarts of cold water for 30 minutes.

  3. Drain the codfish, remove bones, and run it through a food processor.

Form the balls

  1. Run the cold boiled potatoes through a food processor.

  2. Mix the codfish, potatoes, pepper, parsley, and seasoning together.

  3. Roll the mixture into 2-ounce balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Make a batter with the eggs and a little milk.

  2. Dip the balls into the batter, then coat with cracker dust.

  3. Fry the balls in hot lard until golden brown.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Forms the main body of the balls and gives them their savory flavor.
Cold boiled potatoes
Add starch and bulk, giving the mixture a soft, binding texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter so it clings to the balls and helps form a coating.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and gives the coating its golden browning.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs excess fat and turns greasy before it browns. Hot oil seals the crust quickly, so the inside heats through without the outside becoming soggy.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, egg, milk. 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.

More codfish balls recipes

Salt 3 See all 201 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes