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Codfish Fritters

A fried patty made from soaked salt cod, onions, tomatoes, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Codfish Fritters

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Codfish Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the salt codfish in water until fresh enough, then boil and drain.

  2. Remove the bones and pound the fish fine in a mortar.

  3. Add chopped parsley, pepper, nutmeg, and 2 tablespoons of butter to the fish.

Make the filling

  1. In a pan, fry the chopped onions in butter until soft.

  2. Simmer the scalded and peeled tomatoes with the onions.

  3. Mix the onion and tomato mixture thoroughly with the fish.

  4. Add 6 well-beaten eggs and mix until combined.

Fry the fritters

  1. Form small fritters and fry in hot oil until light 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 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

Salt codfish
Forms the main body of the fritters and gives their savory flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, holding the fritters together.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet when cooked in butter, adding aroma to the filling.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps soften the onions and enrich the fish.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil. Oil that is hot enough browns the outside quickly and seals the fritter, so it absorbs less oil and holds its shape. Oil that is too cool lets the batter-like mixture soak up grease and fall apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, pepper, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, pepper, nutmeg, 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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