Skip to main content
Main

Cheese Balls for Salad

Cheese balls made with grated American cheese, egg whites, cayenne pepper, and cracker crumbs, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,861 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cheese Balls for Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the grated cheese, beaten egg whites, and cayenne pepper in a bowl.

  2. Roll the mixture into walnut-sized balls.

  3. Dip each ball in finely rolled cracker crumbs.

  4. Chill the balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the chilled balls in hot lard until golden brown.

  2. Drain the balls on brown paper.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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

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

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

American cheese
Provides the main flavor and melting body that gives the balls their rich filling.
Egg whites
Bind the cheese mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns and protects the filling during frying.

The step that matters

Chill the balls before frying. Chilling firms the cheese and egg white mixture so the balls keep their shape and do not leak or fall apart in hot lard.

“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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes