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Fish-Balls

Fish balls made from minced fish and boiled potatoes, 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 pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fish-Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the fish into small bits and mix with the boiled potatoes while hot, mashing them together.

  2. Fry slices of fat salt pork until brown.

  3. Mix the browned fat into the fish and potato mixture with a little pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls about the size of a dollar and roll them in flour.

  2. Heat lard in a pan and fry the balls until golden brown, about 1–2 minutes.

  3. Do not leave the fat on the heat without fish-balls in it.

  4. Place the fried balls in the oven for a few minutes and serve hot.

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 + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Fish + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Fish + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together134 recipes

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

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the balls, giving them their savoury flavour and firm texture.
Boiled potatoes
Bind the fish together and add moisture and softness to the mixture.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the mixture once browned.
Flour
Coats the balls so they brown and form a crisp outer surface when fried.

The step that matters

Do not leave the fat on the heat without fish-balls in it.. Lard heated with nothing in it can overheat and begin to smoke or break down, producing acrid flavours and risking a fire. Adding the balls keeps the fat at a steadier temperature.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pork, pepper, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Spinachfits less well
  4. Lettucefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, pepper, flour. 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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