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 ↓
Codfish Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil and dice the potatoes.
Add the flaked codfish to the potatoes and heat through.
Drain off any water and mash the mixture.
Add the egg and mix well.
Shape and fry
Mould the mixture into balls.
Fry the balls in hot lard 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.
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 that defines the dish.
- Potatoes
- Form the starchy bulk that holds the balls together and keeps them soft inside.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
The step that matters
Drain off any water before mashing. Excess water from the potatoes makes the mixture wet and loose, so the balls may fall apart or steam instead of browning in the hot lard.
“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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