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Ham Balls

Ham balls are small meatballs made from finely chopped ham, parsley, onion, spices, bread crumbs, butter, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Ham Balls

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped ham, parsley, onion, pepper, salt, and cayenne.

  2. Mix in the bread crumbs, butter, and egg yolks until well combined.

  3. Form the mixture into balls the size of English walnuts.

  4. If using raw ham, cook the balls in boiling water for 15 minutes; if using cooked ham, cook for 10 minutes before serving.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the balls body and a soft, tender texture.
Lean ham
Provides the savory meaty flavor that forms the base of the balls.

The step that matters

Cooking time depends on the ham type. Raw ham needs a longer simmer in boiling water to cook through safely, while cooked ham only needs heating. Following the wrong time can leave the centre undercooked or overcooked and dry.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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