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Cracker Balls for Soup

Cracker balls are small doughy spheres made from goose grease, eggs, crackers, parsley, salt, ginger, and nutmeg, dropped into soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cracker Balls for Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the balls

  1. Rub 3 tablespoons hard goose-grease or butter into a cream.

  2. Add 2 eggs, finely-chopped parsley, salt, ginger, and nutmeg.

  3. Add 5 rolled soda crackers.

  4. Roll mixture into balls.

Serve

  1. Drop balls into boiling soup 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

597Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
110 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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 Kaufman, Nettie M. 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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together676 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Goose-grease
Adds fat and richness, giving the balls a tender, moist texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the balls hold their shape.
Soda crackers
Provide body and absorb moisture, helping the mixture firm up into balls.

The step that matters

Drop balls into boiling soup 5 minutes before serving. The balls cook in the hot liquid, and the eggs set as they heat. Adding them too early can make them break apart or turn tough, while adding them too late leaves them underdone in the center.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, nutmeg. 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.

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