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Boston Fish-balls

Codfish balls made with suet, butter, bread crumbs, spices, anchovy sauce, and egg, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boston Fish-balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the codfish in water, then remove any skin and bones.

  2. In a mortar, pound the codfish, suet, butter, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and anchovy sauce together until well mixed. Add the egg and mix until combined.

  3. Divide the mixture into small cakes.

Fry

  1. Fry the cakes in hot oil until they are light brown on both sides.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  5. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 cakes, providing the flaky fish texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so the cakes hold their shape when fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the cakes a firmer, less wet texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the cakes moist and adds richness.

The step that matters

Frying the cakes in hot oil. Oil that is not hot enough lets the cakes soak up grease and fall apart, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the inside is cooked. Steady heat gives an even light brown crust with a tender centre.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, pepper, anchovy, sauce, egg. 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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