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Fish Balls

A fried dish of mashed potatoes mixed with chopped salt fish, butter, and optional milk.

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

Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them in a bowl.

  2. Mix the mashed potatoes with the chopped salt‑fish until well combined.

  3. Add the butter and taste for salt, adjusting as necessary.

  4. If desired, add the milk for a moister mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into round balls about the size of an egg.

  2. Fry the balls in boiling oil until they are a handsome brown, about five 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  4. Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that binds the mixture and gives the balls a soft, fluffy interior.
Salt-fish
Supplies the main savoury flavour and salty character of the balls.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the mash and adding flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture to loosen the mixture, making it softer and creamier.

The step that matters

Fry in properly hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the balls absorb oil and become greasy before a crust forms. Oil that is hot enough sets the outside quickly and browns it, keeping the inside tender and the balls from falling apart.

“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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