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Codfish Balls

A dish of boiled codfish and potato mixture formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Make the mixture

  1. Cook the sliced potatoes and codfish flakes together until the potatoes are soft.

  2. Pour off any excess water.

  3. Add the beaten egg, salt, and paprika, then mix until very light.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small balls.

  2. Fry the balls in deep fat 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 + 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

Sliced raw potatoes
Cooked until soft, they bind with the fish and give the balls their bulk and body.
Codfish flakes
Provide the main savory, salty flavor and the fish texture of the balls.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture together and, when beaten in, helps it turn light and hold its shape.

The step that matters

Mix until very light. Beating the egg into the cooked potato and fish until light incorporates air and helps the balls stay tender. Under-mixing leaves the mixture dense and loose, so the balls may fall apart in the hot fat.

“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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