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Boston Codfish Balls

Boston Codfish Balls are fried balls made from salt codfish, mashed potatoes, egg, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boston Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

  1. Soak the salt codfish in cold water for several hours.

  2. Drain the water, add fresh water, and boil the codfish until tender.

  3. Remove the skin and bones, then shred the fish into fine fibers.

Form and fry

  1. Mix the shredded fish with the mashed potatoes, beaten egg, melted butter, and enough milk to make the mixture easy to handle.

  2. Shape the mixture into small balls.

  3. Fry the balls in deep, hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve for breakfast with orange marmalade and hot, buttered toast.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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

Salt codfish
Provides the main savory flavor and the flaky, fibrous body of the balls.
Mashed potatoes
Adds starch and softness, binding the fish and keeping the centre moist.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder that helps the mixture hold its shape while frying.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavor and a tender texture.
Milk
Adjusts the moisture so the mixture is soft enough to shape without being sticky.

The step that matters

Fry in deep, hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the balls absorb excess oil and turn greasy before the outside browns. Oil that is too cool also lets the centre stay underdone. Hot oil sets and browns the surface quickly, sealing in moisture.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

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

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