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Nut and Potato Balls

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes, walnuts, parsley, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Nut and Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine mashed potatoes, chopped walnut meats, minced parsley, and egg whites in a bowl. Add milk if the mixture is too dry.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each ball in additional chopped walnut meats.

  2. Roll each ball in egg yolks.

  3. Fry the balls in deep fat 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.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Walnut + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body that holds the balls together.
Chopped walnut meats
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft potato.
Egg whites
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Egg yolks
Enrich the outer coating and help it brown during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in deep fat until golden brown. Frying at a steady, hot temperature browns the egg-coated outside quickly and sets it, so the inside heats through without the coating burning or the balls absorbing excess oil and falling apart.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, walnut, meat, egg, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Dillfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, walnut, meat, egg, milk. 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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