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Cheese Bales

Cheese balls are fried balls of grated cheese and egg whites coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Bales

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the grated cheese and beaten egg whites together.

  2. Add a pinch of red pepper and a little salt.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into balls the size of walnuts.

  2. Roll the balls in fine bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the balls in deep fat until golden brown.

  2. Serve very hot.

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.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese
Supplies the main flavour and, bound with egg, the body of each ball.
Egg whites
Whipped stiff, they trap air and help bind the cheese into a light, shapeable mixture.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns quickly in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Keep the deep fat hot. Fat that is too cool lets the balls soak up oil and turn greasy. Fat that is too hot browns the crumbs before the cheese inside has melted. Frying to golden heats the filling through while the coating crisps.

“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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