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English Potato Balls

English potato balls are mashed potatoes mixed with butter, cream, salt, pepper, rolled into balls, topped with vermicelli, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

English Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until very dry.

  2. Mash the potatoes until smooth.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Warm the mixture with 2 tablespoons of butter and a few spoonfuls of cream.

Shape and coat

  1. Let the mixture cool, then roll it into balls.

  2. Sprinkle crushed vermicelli over the balls.

Fry

  1. Fry the balls until light 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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the balls, providing the starchy body that holds the shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavour and helps the mixture feel smooth.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed potato, keeping it from drying out.
Crushed vermicelli
Coats the outside, adding a crisp, golden surface when fried.

The step that matters

Boil the potatoes until very dry. Excess water in the potatoes dilutes the mash and makes the balls soft and likely to fall apart when fried. Drying the potatoes well gives a firmer mixture that holds its shape.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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