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Codfish Balls

A dish of codfish mixed with mashed potatoes, butter, cream, and pepper, formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 cod

  1. Soak the codfish in cold water for 30 minutes, then drain.

  2. Cover the cod with boiling water and let it stand for 15 minutes on the back of the stove.

  3. Drain again and press out all excess water.

Shape and fry

  1. Mix the cod with the well-beaten potatoes and add the butter, cream, and pepper. Beat the mixture well, then form it into balls.

  2. Roll the balls in egg and breadcrumbs (or in egg and flour), then fry in boiling lard until browned.

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

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

  3. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt cod
Provides the main savoury flavour and the flaky body of the fritter.
Potatoes
Bind the fish together and give the balls a soft, fluffy interior.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the mixture stays tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother texture in the mixture.

The step that matters

Press out all excess water from the cod. Any water left in the fish dilutes the potato mixture and makes the balls loose and likely to fall apart or steam rather than brown in the hot lard.

“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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