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Cheese Balls

Cheese balls are fried balls of grated cheese mixed with cracker crumbs, pepper, salt, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cheese Balls

Why it works: Cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,861 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and shape

  1. Combine the grated cheese, cracker crumbs, pepper, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Mix in the eggs until well combined.

  3. Form the mixture into balls the size of walnuts.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then coat with additional crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot lard, turning to keep them round until golden brown.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Cheese
Provides rich flavor and, as it softens and binds, helps hold the balls together.
Cracker crumbs
Add bulk and structure, and form the crisp outer coating after frying.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the crumb coating adhere.
Lard
Conducts heat around the balls and browns the crumb coating through frying.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough to set and brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the balls absorb fat, become greasy, and can fall apart. Turning them keeps the coating evenly sealed and round.

“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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