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Fish Balls

Fish balls made from codfish, potatoes, egg, butter, and pepper, boiled then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Balls

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the codfish in cold water and break it into small pieces.

  2. Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes into pieces.

Make the mixture

  1. Cook the fish and potatoes together in boiling water until the potatoes are soft.

  2. Drain and shake over the fire until dry, then mash the mixture.

  3. Add the beaten egg, butter, and pepper, mixing well.

  4. Add more salt if needed.

Fry

  1. Take spoonfuls of the mixture, mold slightly, and fry in deep fat until golden.

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

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

  2. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 gives the balls their soft, tender body.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture together so the balls hold their shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed mixture.
Salt codfish
Supplies the main savory flavor of the fish balls.

The step that matters

Drying the mixture. Shaking the cooked fish and potatoes over the fire drives off surplus water. Wet mixture stays soft and falls apart, while a drier mash holds its shape and fries to a crisp golden crust.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, 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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