Codfish Balls
Soak codfish cut in pieces about an hour in lukewarm water, remove skin and bones, pick to small pieces, and return to stove in cold water. As soon as it begins to boil, change the water, and bring to a boil again. Have ready potatoes boiled tender, well mashed, and seasoned with butter. Mix thoroughly with the potatoes half the quantity of codfish while both are still hot, form into flat, thick cakes or round balls, fry in hot lard or drippings, or dip in hot fat, like doughnuts. The addition of a beaten egg before making into balls renders them lighter. Cold potatoes may be used, by reheating, adding a little cream and butter, and mixing while hot.-Mrs. J. H. Shearer.
A straightforward salt-cod cake, but the recipe assumes you know what dried salt cod is and how salty it will be after a single hour's soak. That is the part to attend to.
- The fish is salt cod"Codfish" here means hard, bone-dry salted cod, not fresh fillet. Fresh cod needs no soaking and will fall apart; if you use it, the dish becomes a different thing entirely.
- Soak longer than an hourSalt cod sold today is often very hard and dry, and an hour will not get you there. Plan on 8 to 24 hours in cold water in the refrigerator, changed several times, and taste a shred before you commit. The two changes of boiling water in the recipe read as a final salt correction rather than the main soak.
- Two parts potato to one part fish"Half the quantity of codfish" means half as much fish as potato, measured by bulk of the picked flesh. Roughly 2 cups mashed potato to 1 cup flaked cod.
- Mix while hotThe recipe insists on it twice, and the cold-potato variation is written so that the potatoes are reheated with a little cream and butter and mixed hot as well.
- Frying fatThe recipe names lard or drippings. Any neutral fat around 360-375F will do. "Like doughnuts" indicates deep fat, fully submerged, and balls need enough depth to float free; the recipe leaves shallow frying and deep fat as equal options for either shape.
- The eggThe recipe offers a beaten egg as optional, saying it renders the balls lighter. It will also loosen the mixture, so shaped cakes are easier to handle after a rest in the cold.
Salt cod was a staple of nineteenth-century American cooking, cheap and shelf-stable, and reached inland households well away from the coast. Codfish balls belong to a family of dishes built on stretching preserved fish with potato, and they were widely eaten as a breakfast dish in New England. Buckeye Cookery was compiled in Ohio, and the attribution to Mrs. J. H. Shearer reflects the book's practice of printing contributions credited to named household cooks.