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Ham and Potato Balls

Ham and potato balls are fried balls of mashed potatoes mixed with ham, seasonings, and coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ham and Potato Balls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato mixture

  1. Mix mashed potatoes with salt, pepper, flour, and beaten egg yolk until combined.

  2. Set aside until cold and stiff.

Shape and coat

  1. Take a tablespoon of the mixture, shape it into a cup in your floured hand.

  2. Place a tablespoon of seasoned minced ham in the center, enfold with potato, and roll into a smooth ball.

  3. Dip the ball into beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  4. Chill until stiff.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in deep boiling fat until golden brown.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the main body of the ball, giving a soft, starchy interior.
Beaten egg yolk
Binds the potato mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Flour
Helps the potato mixture firm up and stay workable when shaping.
Minced ham
Provides savory, salty flavor in the center of each ball.
Beaten egg
Acts as a glue so the cracker crumbs stick to the balls.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer layer that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Chill until stiff before frying. Cold chilling firms the potato and egg coating so the balls hold their shape. If they are not stiff, the coating can break or the balls can fall apart in hot fat.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour, egg, ham, mustard):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour, egg, ham, mustard. 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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