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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are fried patties made from boiled cod, mashed potatoes, eggs or milk, butter, pepper, flour, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the soaked cod until cooked, then chop it finely.

  2. Boil and mash an equal quantity of potatoes.

  3. Combine the chopped cod and mashed potatoes.

  4. Moisten the mixture with beaten eggs or milk.

  5. Add a bit of butter.

  6. Add a little pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small, round cakes about ½ inch thick.

  2. Flour the outside of each cake.

  3. Fry the cakes in hot lard until they are a delicate brown, ensuring the lard is boiling hot when adding the cakes.

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

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

  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

Soaked cod
Provides the main fish flavour and the bulk of the cake's body.
Potatoes
Mashed starch binds the fish and keeps the cakes soft and moist inside.
Beaten eggs or milk
Moisten the mixture and help bind the cakes together.
Flour
Dusted on the outside, it helps the cakes brown evenly while frying.
Lard
Hot fat conducts heat to the cake surface, creating a golden crust and browning.

The step that matters

Fry in boiling-hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough when the cakes go in, they absorb grease and turn heavy instead of forming a crisp, delicately browned crust. Hot fat seals the surface quickly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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