Why it works: Potato and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,978 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cod Fish Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the codfish overnight in cold water.
Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them finely.
Mix and fry
While the potatoes are hot, mix in the soaked codfish and beaten egg whites.
Heat lard in a pan until smoking hot, then drop in tablespoonfuls of the mixture and fry until golden brown.
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.
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Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 savoury, salty flavour and the main body of the fish balls.
- Potatoes
- Mashed starch that binds the mixture and gives the balls a soft, tender interior.
- Egg whites
- Bind the mixture together and help the balls hold their shape while frying.
- Lard
- Frying fat that conducts heat and browns the outside to a golden crust.
The step that matters
Mixing the codfish and egg whites into hot potatoes. Mixing while the potatoes are still hot lets the starch blend evenly with the fish and egg, giving a smooth, cohesive mixture. Cooled potatoes stiffen and bind less well, so the balls may crumble in the pan.
“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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