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Dolpettes of Cold Meat

Small fried balls made from cold hashed meat, breadcrumbs, egg yolk, Parmesan, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,490 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Dolpettes of Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the cold hashed meat and mix it with enough bread crumbs to stiffen the consistency. Add the egg yolk and mix well.

  2. Shape the mixture into small balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into the egg, then roll them in bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Fry the balls in hot oil until they are brown.

Serve

  1. Glaze them or serve with tomato sauce.

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. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

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

  2. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Bread + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold hashed meat
Forms the bulk of the balls and provides the main flavor and body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and stiffen the mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture together and adds richness to the interior.
Egg
Creates a sticky layer so the crumb coating adheres to the balls.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the coating brown during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot oil until they are brown. Hot oil quickly sets the crumb coating and browns it through the Maillard reaction, while a cool oil lets the balls soak up grease and fall apart.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, egg, parmesan cheese, sauce):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, egg, parmesan cheese, sauce. 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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