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Meat Balls

Meat balls made from ham, mashed potatoes, eggs, salt, pepper, optional mustard and herbs, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Meat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham, mashed potatoes, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, and optional mustard and herbs.

  2. Form the mixture into small balls.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a pan over medium-high heat.

  2. Fry the meatballs until golden brown on all sides.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + sagetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Chopped ham
Provides the main savory meaty flavor and bulk of the meatball.
Mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and softness, helping the balls stay tender inside.
Beaten eggs
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape while frying.

The step that matters

Fry the meatballs until golden brown on all sides. The balls are soft and held together only by egg and potato, so they can break apart if moved too early. Let each side set and brown before turning, which builds flavor through browning and firms the outside.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, potato, egg, pepper, sage):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, potato, egg, pepper, sage. 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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