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Savoury Potato Balls

Savory potato balls made with mashed potatoes, herbs, optional onion, and optional fried ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Savoury Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil and mash potatoes until smooth.

  2. If desired, mix in chopped parsley, marjoram, and lemon thyme for herb flavor.

  3. Alternatively, add the boiled and chopped Spanish onion.

  4. For a force-meat flavor, include the minced fried ham with the onion and herbs.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes (in the method)
Mashed starch gives the mixture its body and helps it hold together.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma that brightens the mashed potato.
Spanish onion
Boiling mellows its sharpness, adding mild sweetness and savory aroma.
Fried ham
Contributes fat and concentrated savory, meaty flavor.

The step that matters

Mashing the potatoes until smooth. Overworking boiled potatoes releases excess starch, which turns the mash gluey and dense instead of light and smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, marjoram, lemon, thyme, ham):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, marjoram, lemon, thyme, ham. 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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