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Fish Balls

A fried dish of fish and mashed potato formed into balls and coated with egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Break the fish into small pieces.

  2. Mix the fish with the mashed potatoes.

  3. Add the milk, butter, salt, and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls or cakes.

  2. Roll the balls in egg and then in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot fat for 2 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 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

Cold fish
Provides the main body and flaky texture of the balls.
Mashed potatoes
Bind the fish and add softness and moisture to the centre.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry.
Butter or dripping
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the surface brown in the pan.
Egg
Acts as a binder that helps the bread crumb coating adhere.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. The coating must be fully set before the balls are turned or handled, or they can break apart. Hot fat sets the egg and crisps the crumbs quickly, so the balls absorb less grease and keep their shape.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, milk, butter, pepper, egg, bread. 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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