Name: Parsnip Balls
Ingredients: parsnips; beaten egg; grated bread; deep lard

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Balls

Ingredients

parsnips
beaten egg
grated bread
deep lard

Directions

Prepare the parsnips by peeling and cooking them until tender.
Mix the cooked parsnips with the other ingredients and let the mixture cool.
Form the mixture into round or flattened balls.
Coat the balls with beaten egg and then with grated bread.
Place the balls in a frying basket and fry in deep lard until golden brown.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Parsnip + breadtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together110 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Parsnip + eggtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).