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Potato Balls

A fried potato fritter made with boiled potatoes, eggs, cream, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potato Balls

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel and clean the potatoes, then boil them in salted water for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the potatoes, return them to the pan, and wash them well.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the egg yolks, beaten egg whites, cream, parsley, cloves, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. Mix well for 2 minutes.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip about ½ tablespoon of the mixture into frying batter and slide into very hot fat.

  2. Fry for 3 minutes until they swell and form fritters.

  3. Serve in a hot dish with 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the fritters and give them a soft, starchy interior.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture together.
Egg whites
Whipped-in structure that helps the fritters puff and set when fried.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Dip and slide into very hot fat. The fat must be very hot so the batter sets quickly and the fritters swell instead of absorbing grease and turning heavy. Cold fat causes greasy, dense results.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, cream, parsley, nutmeg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, cream, parsley, nutmeg. 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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