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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from codfish, mashed potatoes, butter, pepper, and optional egg, then fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the codfish in cold water for about 2 minutes, then drain it through a sieve or cloth.

Make and fry

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes with the soaked codfish, butter, and pepper until well combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into balls.

  3. Fry the balls in lard until golden brown.

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 + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 salty, savory fish flavor that defines the balls.
Potatoes
Bind the fish and give the balls a soft, moist interior.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the mixture and adds flavor.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying, browning the outside to a golden crust.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in lard until golden brown. Frying at a steady heat browns the outside through the Maillard reaction while the inside heats through. Too hot and the outside browns before the centre cooks; too cool and the balls absorb fat and turn greasy.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg. 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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