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Codfish Balls

A dish of mashed codfish and potatoes formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil codfish and potatoes in plenty of cold water until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked.

  2. Drain off all the water and mash the mixture with a potato masher.

  3. Add ½ cup of butter, the beaten egg, and cream or milk to the mashed mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Flour your hands and shape the mixture into balls or cakes.

  2. Heat ½ ounce each of butter and lard in a frying pan.

  3. Fry the balls until they are a nice 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main savoury flavour and body of the balls.
Potatoes
Bind the mixture and give it a soft, mashable texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture and helps the frying browning.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed mixture.

The step that matters

Drain the water thoroughly before mashing. Excess water dilutes the mixture and makes the balls soft and hard to shape. Draining well keeps the mash firm enough to form balls that hold together in the hot fat.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, 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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