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Matzo Balls

A savory dumpling made from matzo, onion, eggs, and seasonings, boiled in soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Matzo Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Chop and fry the onion in butter or fat until brown.

  2. Soak the matzos in cold water until soft, then drain.

  3. Add the soaked matzos to the onion and stir until the mixture does not stick to the pan.

  4. Remove from heat and add the beaten eggs and chopped parsley.

  5. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, ginger, and nutmeg.

  6. Add enough matzo or cracker meal to hold the mixture together, using as little as possible.

Shape and cook

  1. Shape the mixture into small balls and drop them into boiling soup 15 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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 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

Matzos
Soaked matzo provides the bulk and starch that give the balls their body.
Eggs
Eggs bind the mixture and set when cooked, holding the balls together.
Butter or fat
Fat coats the onion and adds richness and flavor to the mixture.
Onion
Frying the onion until brown adds sweetness and savory depth.
Matzo or cracker meal
Dry crumbs absorb moisture and firm the mixture so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Stirring the matzo and onion mixture. Cooking the soaked matzo with the onion drives off excess moisture so the mixture does not stick to the pan. Adding too much crumb later makes the balls dense and heavy, so use only as much as needed to hold them together.

Swap the onion

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

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

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