No. 1145

Codfish Cakes and Balls

Morue Salee en Galettes et en Boulettes

Pare well the salt codfish and put it to soak; shred it while raw and set it into a saucepan with the same quantity of raw potatoes and sufficient cold water to cover, let boil from twenty-five to thirty minutes, or until the potatoes are done, then drain off the water and cover with a damp towel, set them in the oven a few moments to dry. Pound the whole in a mortar, adding pepper and butter, and when the preparation is reduced to a pulp, form it into two-inch diameter cakes, roll them in flour and flatten to three-quarters of an inch in thickness, fry these in clarified butter, dress on napkins or else on a very hot dish.

For the Codfish Balls use the same preparation, making balls of it one inch in diameter; dip in milk, roll in flour, fry them in very hot fat.

← No. 1144 Salt Codfish a la Villageoise—Baked Cod, Haddock & Halibut No. 1146 Brandade of Salt Cod →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is sound and needs almost no translation, but two details decide whether the cakes hold together and whether they are edible at all.

Soak the fish properly"Put it to soak" means 24 to 48 hours in the refrigerator in plenty of cold water, changed three or four times. Hard salt cod that has only had an hour will be inedibly salty, and no amount of butter will fix it.
Equal parts, by weightEqual parts -- "The same quantity of raw potatoes" is not specified as weight or volume; an equal weight of peeled potato to soaked, shredded fish is a reasonable reading. Floury potatoes such as russets break down best; waxy potatoes stay in lumps under the pestle.
Do not use a food processorA processor turns cooked potato into glue in seconds. Pounding in a mortar, or using a ricer or masher and finishing by working the mixture with a wooden spoon, avoids this.
The drying step is the hingeThe drying step matters -- after draining, the few moments covered with a damp towel in the oven drive off surface water. Ranhofer gives no temperature. Skip it and the mixture may be too slack to shape.
SaltRanhofer names only pepper and butter. Taste the mixture before shaping and salt only if the soaking has left it flat.
Clarified butter and fat temperatureClarified butter is called for because the milk solids in whole butter scorch. For the balls, "very hot fat" means 360-375F; below that they soak up grease, above it the outside colours before the centre heats through.
Chill before fryingNot in the original, but modern practice: half an hour in the refrigerator after shaping firms the cakes and greatly reduces breakage, especially for the one-inch balls, which are dipped in milk and floured with no egg to bind them.
YieldA pound of soaked fish with a pound of potato makes a substantial batch of two-inch cakes, enough for several servings as a first course.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is a rare case of the book pausing over something genuinely domestic. Salt cod was a cheap and ubiquitous protein on the Atlantic seaboard, and the codfish ball was enough of a fixture of the Boston breakfast table to become shorthand for New England itself. Ranhofer gives it the French title morue salée en galettes et en boulettes and the French technique of pounding in a mortar and frying in clarified butter. He distinguishes between the flattened cake fried in butter and the small ball fried in deep fat.