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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from minced silver fish, crumbled roll, onion, egg, parsley, pepper, salt, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and binder

  1. Remove the gills from the fish and mince it.

  2. Soak the crumbled roll in milk, then squeeze it dry.

Shape and coat

  1. Mix the minced fish with the soaked roll, onion, egg, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  2. Roll the mixture into balls.

  3. Dip the balls in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in boiling lard or dripping 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Silver fish
Provides the main protein and flavour of the balls.
Penny roll
Soaked in milk and squeezed, it binds the mixture and keeps the balls tender.
Egg
Binds the fish mixture together and helps the coating adhere.
Milk
Softens the roll so it blends evenly and adds moisture to the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry in boiling lard or dripping until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly. If it is too cool, the balls absorb grease and turn heavy, while the centre may stay underdone.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, milk, egg, parsley, pepper, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, egg, parsley, pepper, bread. 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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