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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from cooked saltfish, mashed potatoes, butter, egg, and optional milk, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then drain and place in a bowl.

  2. Mash the potatoes until light and fine.

Mix and shape

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes thoroughly with the chopped salt-fish.

  2. Taste and add more salt if needed.

  3. Stir in the butter and egg, if using.

  4. For moister balls, add the milk before shaping.

  5. Shape the mixture into round balls about the size of an egg.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a pan and fry the balls until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that binds the balls and gives them a soft, fluffy interior.
Salt-fish
Supplies the main savoury, salty flavour throughout the mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture and adding flavour.
Egg
Helps bind the mixture together and adds structure to the shaped balls.
Milk
Adds moisture, keeping the balls softer inside.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture before frying. The mixture must be well mixed and firm enough to hold its shape; if it is too wet or loose, the balls can break apart in the hot oil.

“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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