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Potato Balls

A baked dish of mashed potatoes formed into balls and seasoned with celery, parsley, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Potato Balls

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Season the mashed potatoes with salt, pepper, celery, parsley, and butter.

  2. Moisten the mixture with a little hot milk or cream.

  3. Beat the egg lightly and add part of it to the potato mixture.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into smooth, round balls.

  2. Brush the balls with the remaining egg and bake on a buttered baking sheet until 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the balls and give them a soft, tender interior.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape, and the brushed egg helps them brown.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Hot milk or cream
Adds moisture and softens the mixture so it is easier to shape.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture into smooth, round balls. If the mixture is too wet or too dry, the balls may crack or fall apart. Moistening gradually and binding with egg helps the mixture hold together during shaping and baking.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper, parsley, butter, milk, egg. 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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