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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are fried balls made from shredded codfish, mashed potato, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Codfish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Soak the codfish for 2-3 hours.

  2. Boil the codfish in water with vinegar for 15 minutes, then spread on a sieve to cool.

  3. Mix the cooled codfish with half as much mashed potato until smooth.

Make the mixture

  1. Heat the mixture, then beat in 1 frothed egg for every cup of fish.

  2. Season with pepper and let the mixture cool completely.

  3. Form into balls, roll in flour, and refrigerate to stiffen.

  4. Prepare the night before.

Fry and serve

  1. Roll in flour again and fry in deep fat 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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Codfish
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the balls.
Mashed potato
Adds starch and moisture that help the mixture hold together and stay soft.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls keep their shape while cooking.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside brown and crisp when fried.

The step that matters

Chill the formed balls until firm. Cooling firms the fat and starch in the mixture, so the balls hold their shape instead of breaking or spreading in the hot fat.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, pepper, flour. 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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