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Codfish Balls (Choose a nice thick piece)
Choose a nice, thick piece of salt codfish, wash thoroughly in tepid water, then pick in small, half-inch bits enough to fill a one-half pint cup. Peel the potatoes, cut enough to fill a pint measure with them. Put fish and potatoes in a wide saucepan, cover with boiling water and boil until the potatoes are soft but not watery. Add butter, and cream, heat thoroughly, stir with silver fork until the mixture is light and creamy, make into small balls and fry in hot lard three minutes, turning them often.
A plain New England breakfast standard, written for cooks who kept a slab of salt cod in the pantry as a matter of course. The proportions are given by volume rather than weight, which still works, but modern salt cod and modern deep frying both need a word.
- The hinge: control the saltThe recipe assumes a household that knew its fish. Salt cod sold today ranges from lightly salted (needs an hour in cold water) to bone-dry hard-cured (needs 24-48 hours, water changed several times, refrigerated). Boiling it with the potatoes leaches out some salt but not nearly enough on its own; taste a shred of the soaked fish before it goes in the pan, and do not salt the mixture at all until the potatoes are mashed in.
- The measurementsA half-pint cup of picked fish is one cup of loose half-inch flakes, roughly 4 to 5 oz soaked. A pint measure of cut potato is two cups, about 12 oz peeled. Two parts potato to one of fish is a common proportion in recipes of this type and is worth keeping.
- Butter and cream are unquantifiedThe original gives no amounts. About 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of cream to this quantity is enough to loosen the mash; more and the balls will not hold their shape in the fat.
- Drain the potatoes hard"Soft but not watery" is the whole difficulty. Drain thoroughly, then return the pan to low heat for a minute to steam off surface moisture before adding butter. A wet mixture will spit and fall apart in the fryer.
- Why a silver forkNineteenth-century advice held that steel discoloured potato and fish; silver or wood was preferred. Any modern fork is fine. The point of the fork rather than a masher is texture: the mixture should stay light and slightly shaggy, not worked to glue.
- No eggThere is no binder here beyond starch, so shape the balls while the mixture is still warm and chill them for 20-30 minutes before frying. Cold balls hold together far better in hot fat.
- Frying'Hot lard' means deep fat; in modern terms aim for roughly 375F. Three minutes suits that heat for balls the size of a walnut; at a lower temperature they soak grease and slump. Fry a test one first. Neutral oil substitutes for lard without complaint, though lard gives a cleaner flavour.
- YieldAbout 12 to 16 small balls, enough for three or four at breakfast. They were commonly served with brown bread, baked beans or a slice of fried salt pork.
Salt cod was the backbone of the New England kitchen long before it was breakfast food: the Grand Banks fishery shipped the best grades to southern Europe and sent the poorest, broken "West India cure" fish to the Caribbean, while lesser pieces stayed at home, where they were cheap, shelf-stable and endlessly useful. Fish balls and fishcakes are the thrifty end of that trade, built from leftover boiled potato and picked fish, and by the late nineteenth century Sunday-morning codfish balls with baked beans had hardened into a regional institution, particularly in Boston. Fried, salty and starchy, the dish belongs to an era when breakfast was expected to carry a working body until noon. The instruction to use a silver fork is a small period signature, echoing the standing kitchen belief that steel tainted delicate white foods.