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Cheese Balls

Cheese balls are fried balls of grated cheese mixed with egg white and coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cheese Balls

Why it works: Cheese and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,253 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese with the beaten egg white until well combined.

  2. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator until cool.

  3. Shape the mixture into small balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each ball in the beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the balls in hot lard until browned.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + 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 stale cheese
Forms the main body of the balls and supplies the rich, savory flavor.
Egg white
Binds the grated cheese together and helps the crumb coating stick.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browning outer crust when fried.
Lard
Conducts heat during frying and promotes even browning of the crumb coating.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture until cool before shaping. Cold cheese firms up and holds its shape, so the balls keep their form when rolled and fried. A warm, soft mixture is more likely to crack or fall apart in the hot lard.

“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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