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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are made from boiled codfish, potatoes, egg, and butter, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil codfish and potatoes in water until the potatoes are done.

  2. Drain and mash the mixture when slightly cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Add the egg and butter, mixing well.

  2. Fry spoonfuls on a hot griddle or frying pan until golden 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.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. 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

Codfish
Provides the salty, savory flavor that defines the fritter.
Potatoes
Starch bulks the mixture and binds it into a soft, mashable body.
Egg
Binds the mashed mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Fry spoonfuls on a hot griddle or frying pan until golden brown. The pan must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. A cool pan lets the mixture soak up oil and turn greasy and pale before the centre is set.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter. 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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