Skip to main content
Main

Cracker Balls for Soup

Small balls made from cracker crumbs, butter, egg, milk or soup, and seasonings, dropped into soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cracker Balls for Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine six tablespoons cracker crumbs, one egg, two tablespoons butter or fat, one teaspoon chopped parsley, one tablespoon milk or soup, 1-8 teaspoons salt, nutmeg, ginger, and pepper to taste.

  2. Stir butter with the egg, add the seasoning, liquid, and enough meal to shape into small balls.

  3. Drop the balls into boiling soup ten minutes before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

189Calories
2 gProtein
14 gFat
14 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cracker5 saltine crackers (15g)66
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cracker crumbs
Form the bulk of the balls and soak up liquid to hold a soft, light texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist bite in the finished balls.
Egg (in the method)
Binds the crumbs and fat so the balls hold their shape in the soup.

The step that matters

Drop the balls into boiling soup ten minutes before serving. The shaped balls are fragile until the egg sets from the heat. Cooking them in gently boiling soup for the full ten minutes firms them through, while a rough boil or a shorter time can make them break apart or stay raw in the centre.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, nutmeg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes