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Ham Balls

Ham balls are small, fried meatballs made with ham, breadcrumbs, milk, egg yolk, parsley, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Ham Balls

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the panade

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Add the bread crumbs and stir over heat until thickened.

Shape the balls

  1. Mix in the chopped ham, parsley, cayenne, and egg yolk until well combined.

  2. Let the mixture cool until firm, then form into small balls.

  3. Roll each ball in egg, then in bread crumbs, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a deep pot until boiling.

  2. Fry the balls in a frying basket until golden brown.

  3. Remove and place on a folded paper in the oven for 1 minute to dry.

  4. Serve on a folded napkin.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 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

Milk
Forms a thickened base with the bread crumbs, keeping the mixture moist.
Dried bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and bind the mixture, giving the balls body and a coating.
Egg yolk
Binds the ham and crumbs together and adds richness to the mixture.
Cooked ham or tongue
Provides the savory meat flavor that defines the balls.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool until firm before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is too loose to hold a ball shape. Cooling lets the starch in the thickened crumbs set, so the balls keep their form and do not break apart when rolled and fried.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, bread, egg, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, bread, egg, milk. 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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