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Cracker Balls

Cracker balls are small, savory spheres made from butter, egg, parsley, spices, and soda crackers, added to soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cracker Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Cream the butter or fat in a bowl.

  2. Add the egg and chopped parsley, then season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Crumble the rolled soda crackers into the mixture.

Shape and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into small balls.

  2. Add the balls to boiling soup 5 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.

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

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold together when shaped and simmered.
Butter or fat
Adds richness and moisture, softening the mixture for easier shaping.
Rolled soda crackers
Provide crumbs that absorb the egg and fat, giving the balls body and a light texture.

The step that matters

Add the balls to boiling soup 5 minutes before serving. The balls must be firm enough to hold their shape in the simmering liquid. Egg proteins set with heat, so adding them too early can make them overcook and turn tough, while adding them too late leaves them underheated in the center.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

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