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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are made from shredded codfish, milk, butter, flour, and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the codfish

  1. Soak the codfish overnight.

  2. In the morning, shred the codfish finely.

  3. Pour enough boiling water over the codfish to cover it; boil for a few minutes, then drain.

Make the mixture

  1. Add more hot water and cook for 30 minutes.

  2. Once cooked, add ½ pint of milk, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1 tablespoon of flour mixed in the milk.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then form it into balls.

Fry and serve

  1. Roll the balls in cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the balls 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 + 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. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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
Forms the main body of the balls, providing the flavour and bulk of the dish.
Milk
Moistens the mixture and softens the fish for a tender, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a softer interior and flavour.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so it holds together when shaped into balls.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in boiling lard until browned. The lard must be hot enough to brown and crisp the crumb coating quickly; if it is too cool, the balls absorb more fat and turn greasy before the coating sets.

“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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