Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Force-meat Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Mince the cooked meat or fowl finely.
Season the minced meat well with salt and pepper.
Bind the mixture together with the egg.
Shape and fry
Roll the mixture into balls the size of a yolk.
Coat the balls in cracker or bread crumbs.
Fry the balls in hot lard until golden brown.
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.
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,432 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Binds the minced meat so the balls hold their shape.
- Cracker or bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating when fried.
- Cooked meat or fowl
- Provides the main filling and flavor of the meatballs.
The step that matters
Frying the coated balls in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the crumb coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it browns. Hot fat sets the crust quickly, so the coating browns and the inside stays moist.
“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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