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Spinach Balls

Spinach balls are small oblong cakes made from spinach, flour, cream, sugar, eggs, and spices, cooked in boiling water and served with cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Spinach Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Put a slightly heaping tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of cream, and half a teaspoonful of sugar into a saucepan on the stove. Mix well.

  2. When it boils, add a heaping tablespoonful of flour (as much as will stay on the spoon) and let it come to a boil.

  3. Add three-quarters of a cup of cooked and finely chopped spinach, beat well and remove from the fire.

  4. When cold, add two eggs, one at a time.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and half a saltspoonful of powdered mace.

Shape and poach the balls

  1. Have a saucepan of boiling water, slightly salted, on the stove. Dip a tablespoon in cold water.

  2. Take up enough of the spinach mixture to make an oblong cake, shaped like an egg cut in half lengthwise. Dip the spoon in the boiling water and let the cake float off.

  3. Repeat until all mixture used.

  4. Cook the balls for four or five minutes, ensuring the water does not boil too fast. Drain the balls in a colander while making a cream sauce.

Serve

  1. When the sauce is made, put the balls into it and let them come to a boil.

  2. Turn out on a platter and garnish with parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

184Calories
7 gProtein
11 gFat
15 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

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

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Butter (in the method)
Melts with flour to form the base that gives the balls body and richness.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the cream mixture so it holds its shape around the spinach.
Spinach (in the method)
Provides the main bulk, color and earthy flavor of the balls.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls set firmly when cooked in water.

The step that matters

Keep the poaching water below a boil. A hard boil can break up the delicate, egg-bound balls and make them fall apart. Gentle simmering lets the egg proteins set slowly and hold their shape.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg, 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.

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