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Codfish Balls

A dish of boiled codfish and mashed potatoes 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 butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  2. Peel the potatoes and cut them in half.

Make the mixture

  1. Combine codfish and potatoes in a kettle and boil the mixture until done.

  2. Drain the mixture and mash it until smooth.

  3. Beat the eggs thoroughly, then mix them into the fish and potato mixture along with the butter.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Fry the balls in hot 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 + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. 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

Potatoes
Starch that mashes smooth, giving the balls a soft, cohesive body.
Codfish
Provides the main flavor and savory protein base of the balls.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the balls absorb fat and turn greasy before the outside browns. Hot fat sears the surface quickly, sealing in moisture and forming a crisp golden crust.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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