Skip to main content
Main

Codfish Balls

A dish of fried codfish and potato balls seasoned with mustard and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cod

  1. Wash the codfish and place it in a pot covered with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then drain and cover again with cold water.

  3. Boil until the fish is cooked through.

  4. Remove bones from the fish and flake it.

Form and fry

  1. In a bowl, mix the codfish, mashed potatoes, mustard, butter, and milk.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

  3. Fry the balls in hot oil until golden 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main body and flavor of the balls once flaked and mixed.
Mashed potatoes
Bind the fish together and add moisture and body to the mixture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, which keeps the balls moist and tender.
Milk
Adds moisture that helps the mixture hold together softly.
French mustard
Adds sharpness and a savory bite that balances the fish.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in hot oil. Oil that is hot enough browns the outside quickly and seals in moisture. If the oil is too cool, the balls absorb grease and turn heavy and soggy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, walnut, milk):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, walnut, milk. 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