Why it works: Potato and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,978 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Potato Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Form the mashed potatoes into balls.
Crush the crackers into fine crumbs.
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Coat and fry
Dip each potato ball in the egg.
Roll each ball in the crushed crackers.
Fry the balls in very hot oil until golden brown.
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.
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Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mashed potatoes
- Forms the soft, moist filling inside each ball.
- Egg
- Binds the cracker crumbs to the potato balls so the coating sticks.
- Crackers
- Form a crisp, browning crust when fried.
The step that matters
Fry the balls in very hot oil until golden brown.. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp. Too hot and the crust browns before the potato inside heats through.
“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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