Skip to main content
Main

Albanian Fried Meatballs

A fried meatball patty made with stale bread, ground meat, feta, herbs, and flour.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Mint and oregano match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 143 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Soak bread in water and squeeze hard to drain.

  2. Combine soaked bread, ground meat, bread crumbs, oil or melted butter, onion, cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and mint, and mix thoroughly.

  3. Form mixture into 1 inch-thick patties.

Season and fry

  1. Sprinkle patties with salt, pepper, and oregano.

  2. Roll patties in flour.

  3. Fry patties in hot oil.

  4. Serve hot with French fries or mashed potatoes.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mint + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Pepper + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground meat
Forms the main body of the patties and provides savory flavor and richness.
Bread
Soaked and squeezed, it adds moisture and softness to the patties.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and help the mixture hold together.
Feta cheese
Adds salty, tangy flavor and some richness to the mixture.
Onion
Adds aroma and moisture, and its flavor carries through the patties.
Flour
Coats the outside so the patties brown and form a crisp crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry patties in hot oil. Oil that is hot enough sears the flour coating quickly, creating a browned crust that seals in juices. Oil that is too cool lets the patties absorb grease and cook unevenly.

Flavor stand-ins for the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, meat, onion, feta cheese, butter, parsley, pepper):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Celerybetter flavor fit
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, meat, onion, feta cheese, butter, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Brown BreadIllustrationBrown Bread461 recipesIllustration of Macaroni and CheeseIllustrationMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesIllustration of White BreadIllustrationWhite Bread80 recipesIllustration of Bread OmeletteIllustrationBread Omelette60 recipes