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Cheese Balls

Cheese balls are fried balls of grated cheese, flour, salt, cayenne pepper, and egg whites, rolled in cracker meal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cheese Balls

Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated cheese, flour, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Gently cut and fold in the beaten egg whites until well mixed.

  3. Shape the mixture into balls the size of hickory nuts.

  4. Roll each ball in cracker meal.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the balls in deep hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Drain on brown paper and serve with salad or as a cheese course.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Cheese + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,860 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Grated cheese
Provides the main flavor and, when melted, the rich body of the balls.
Egg whites
Beaten stiff, they trap air and give the balls a light, puffy structure.
Flour
Helps bind the cheese so the mixture holds its shape when fried.
Cracker meal
Forms a crisp coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Gently cut and fold in the beaten egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold trapped air; vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving dense rather than light balls that may burst or toughen in the hot fat.

“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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