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Potato Balls

A fried ball made from boiled potatoes, butter, milk, egg yolk, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potato Balls

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato mixture

  1. Rub the cold boiled potatoes through a wire sieve.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the potatoes with butter and milk; heat until smooth.

  3. Add pepper, salt, egg yolk, and chopped parsley; mix well.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool, then form it into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush the balls with egg white, roll in bread crumbs, and fry in hot fat until golden.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the balls and give them a soft, fluffy body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the potato for a smoother texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Egg white
Forms a thin coating that helps bread crumbs stick and encourages browning.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before forming the balls. Warm, soft potato mixture is too sticky to shape and may fall apart or break open in the hot fat. Cooling firms the starch so the balls hold their form while frying.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, milk, pepper, egg, bread. 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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