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Codfish Balls

Codfish balls are fried balls made from shredded codfish, mashed potatoes, egg, and spices, coated in crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato 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

  1. In a bowl, combine codfish, egg, mashed potatoes, cayenne, and white pepper, then mix until well combined and form into balls or oblong shapes.

  2. Roll each ball in beaten egg, then coat with bread or cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan and drop in the balls.

  2. Fry until golden brown, turning occasionally.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + white peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the codfish and potato mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Mashed potatoes
Adds body and softness, helping the balls stay moist inside.
Cooked shredded codfish
Provides the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Forms a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown, turning occasionally. Oil must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly; if it is too cool the balls soak up oil and turn greasy before the crust sets. Turning them helps the coating brown evenly.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, potato, egg, bread. 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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