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 ↓
Egg Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mash the hard-boiled egg yolks until fine.
Mix in the raw egg yolk, butter, and flour to form a paste.
Roll the mixture into very small balls.
Cook and serve
Drop the balls into boiling water for a few minutes to harden.
Use the egg balls in stews or soups.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Hard-boiled egg yolks
- Provide the main body and rich egg flavour of the balls.
- Raw egg yolk
- Binds the mashed yolks together so they hold their shape.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a softer, richer texture and smoother paste.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture and gives it enough structure to roll and hold shape.
The step that matters
Drop the balls into boiling water for a few minutes to harden. Raw yolk in the paste sets when heated, so the balls firm up in boiling water. Cooking too long can make them tough and rubbery, while too short a time leaves them soft and likely to 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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