Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Force-meat Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mince the cooked meat or fowl finely and season well.
Bind the mixture together with the egg.
Roll the mixture in cracker or bread crumbs.
Fry
Fry the balls in hot lard until golden brown, making them the size of a yolk of an egg.
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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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooked meat or fowl
- Provides the main body and savory flavor of the meatballs.
- Egg
- Binds the minced meat together so the balls hold their shape.
- Cracker or bread crumbs
- Coat the outside and help create a crisp, browned surface when fried.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the balls absorb grease and turn soggy instead of crisp.
“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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