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Cheese Balls

Cheese balls are fried balls made from grated cheese, flour, eggs, and spices, coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cheese Balls

Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese, flour, salt, and paprika or cayenne pepper.

  2. Add the egg whites and stir until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into small balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each ball in the beaten egg yolk, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the balls in hot lard 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.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cheese + flourtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,860 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese
Provides the main flavor and, when melted, helps bind the balls.
Egg whites
Bind the mixture and help it hold its shape while frying.
All-purpose flour
Absorbs moisture and helps give the mixture body so it holds together.
Egg yolk
Acts as a glue so the cracker crumbs stick to the outside.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs more fat and turns greasy, and the cheese inside may not set before the outside over-browns. Frying at a steady high heat seals the crumb coating quickly and keeps the centre tender.

“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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