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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from boiled fish, mashed potatoes, eggs, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 mixture

  1. Remove bones and skin from the fish and shred it finely.

  2. Mix the fish with the mashed potatoes, seasoning, and sauce.

  3. Beat one egg and combine it with the mixture until it binds.

Shape and coat

  1. Roll the mixture into balls.

  2. Beat the second egg and brush it over the balls.

  3. Roll the balls in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the balls in deep hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 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

Cold white boiled fish
Forms the main body of the balls and provides their flavor.
Mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and softness, helping the balls stay tender inside.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and form a coating that helps crumbs stick.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in deep hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the balls absorb oil and turn greasy before the crust sets. Good frying seals the crumb coating quickly and keeps the inside moist.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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