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Matzo Kloese or Cracker Balls

A ball-shaped matzo meal mixture made with dripping, eggs, onion, and water, boiled in soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Matzo Kloese or Cracker Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the dripping in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, grated onion, water, salt, and pepper. Stir thoroughly.

  3. Gradually add matzo meal until the batter can be rolled easily with moistened hands.

  4. Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes before forming into balls.

Cook

  1. Drop the balls into boiling soup.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

  3. Egg + oniontop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

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

Egg and pepper 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

Dripping
Creamed fat that adds richness and a tender texture to the dumplings.
Eggs
Bind the batter together and add structure to the dumplings as they set.
Matzo meal
Absorbs the liquid and forms the bulk that lets the batter be rolled into balls.
Grated onion
Adds moisture and savory flavor throughout the dumplings.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand for 20 minutes before forming into balls. Standing lets the matzo meal fully absorb the liquid and eggs, so the batter firms up and holds its shape. Forming the balls too early can leave a sticky mixture that breaks apart in the soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper. 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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