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Egg Balls

Egg Balls are boiled eggs with yolks mixed with butter, salt, pepper, and a raw egg, shaped into balls, fried or boiled in soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Egg Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the yolks

  1. Boil three eggs for twenty minutes.

  2. Put them in cold water and, when cool, remove the shells.

  3. Cut carefully through the white and remove the yolks whole.

  4. Cut the yolks into quarters and serve in soup, or rub yolks to a smooth paste.

Shape and cook

  1. Add one teaspoonful of melted butter, one saltspoonful of salt, and a speck of pepper.

  2. Moisten with the beaten white or yolk of one raw egg, using enough to shape easily.

  3. Shape into balls about the size of a nutmeg.

  4. Roll in flour and fry in butter until brown, or drop into the hot soup and cook five minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

186Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Hard-boiled yolks provide the body and crumbly texture of the balls.
Raw egg
Binds the yolk paste so the mixture holds its shape when formed.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the yolk paste and browns when fried.

The step that matters

Moisten with the raw egg. Too little raw egg leaves the paste crumbly and hard to shape, while too much makes it soft and sticky. Add it gradually until the mixture holds together.

“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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