Skip to main content
Main

Codfish Balls

Codfish Balls are fried balls made from mashed potatoes, codfish, butter, egg, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 potatoes with a potato masher.

  3. Add butter, beaten egg, and cream or milk to the mashed potatoes and mix well.

Shape and fry

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

  2. Heat butter and lard in a frying pan until hot.

  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
Starch gives the mixture bulk and a soft, binding texture when mashed.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the outside brown.
Cream or rich milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mash soft and tender.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until they are a nice brown. The pan must be hot before the balls go in. Sugars and proteins on the surface brown quickly at high heat, forming a crisp crust, while a cool pan lets the balls soak up fat and turn greasy and soft.

Swap the potato

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

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

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

More codfish balls recipes

Salt 3 See all 201 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes