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Codfish Balls (Take equal quantities)
Take equal quantities of mashed potatoes and boiled codfish minced fine; to each half-pound allow one ounce of butter and a well-beaten egg; mix thoroughly. Press into balls between two spoons; drop into hot lard, and fry till brown.
A four-ingredient formula that depends almost entirely on getting the moisture right. The mixture should be stiff enough to hold a shape on the spoon before it ever meets the fat.
- Which codIn an American book of this period "boiled codfish" most often means salt cod, freshened by soaking in several changes of cold water for 12 to 24 hours, then simmered gently until it flakes. Fresh cod works and gives a milder ball, but you will need to salt the mixture yourself; salt cod, even after soaking, usually needs none.
- The proportionsEqual quantities by weight of mashed potato and flaked fish, then one ounce (2 tablespoons) of butter and one beaten egg per half-pound. The original does not say whether the half-pound is the combined mixture or each component; reading it as the combined weight, a pound of mixture takes 2 eggs and 4 tablespoons butter, and will make somewhere in the region of a dozen balls.
- Dry potato matters mostBoil or steam the potatoes whole and unpeeled, and let them steam dry before mashing. Waterlogged potato makes a batter that slumps in the fat and drinks oil. The same applies to the fish: press it well and pick it over for skin and bones.
- Hot lard, measuredHot lard -- The book gives no temperature, only "hot lard." In modern terms deep fat somewhere around 360-375F suits this: below that the balls absorb grease; much above it and the outside colors before the inside heats through. Fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash, two to three minutes to a deep brown, and drain on paper.
- Two spoonsPressing the mixture between two spoons gives an oval rather than a true sphere, and the uneven surface crisps well. Dipping the spoons in the hot fat between balls helps the mixture release.
- Chill firstThe recipe says nothing about resting the mixture, but half an hour in the refrigerator firms the butter and makes the balls less likely to break apart in the fat.
- ServingUsually a breakfast or supper dish, served hot; a fried egg, ketchup or a mustard sauce are common modern accompaniments. They do not keep well; the interior turns pasty on standing.
Salt cod was the backbone of the New England kitchen long before it was a nostalgia food. Dried on flakes along the Massachusetts and Maine coasts and shipped south and to the Caribbean, it kept for months without ice and was cheap enough to be a weekday staple, which is why fish balls turn up in nineteenth-century American cookbooks with almost no explanation attached: everyone already knew them. They are commonly associated with Sunday-morning breakfast in Boston households, often eaten with baked beans and brown bread left from Saturday night, though that pairing is traditional lore rather than anything the cookbooks bother to record. The recipe's shape here is typical of the period's household manuals, which give a ratio rather than a list and expect the cook to scale it to whatever cold potato and leftover fish are on hand.