Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Meat Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Chop any kind of cold meat finely.
Mix the chopped meat with 1 or 2 eggs and some butter.
Season the mixture with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle flour over the mixture.
Shape and fry
Roll the mixture into balls.
Fry the balls in hot lard until browned.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cold meat
- Forms the bulk of the balls and gives them their main flavor.
- Eggs
- Bind the chopped meat so the balls hold their shape.
- Butter
- Adds fat and moisture, keeping the balls from drying out.
- Flour
- Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold together when shaped.
- Lard
- Conducts heat in the pan and promotes browning on the outside.
The step that matters
Fry the balls in hot lard until browned. Hot fat sears the outside quickly, forming a browned crust that helps hold the ball together. If the lard is not hot enough, the balls absorb more fat, cook unevenly and may fall apart.
“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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