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Meat Balls

A savory dish of ground steak mixed with bread, eggs, onion, and seasonings, simmered in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Meat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meatballs

  1. Mix the meat with the egg yolks, salt, pepper, grated onion, and the soaked bread after pressing out the milk.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into 4 or 5 balls, about the size of a large egg.

Cook

  1. Melt butter in a skillet and brown the meatballs lightly in the melted butter.

  2. Add the boiling water and cover the skillet.

  3. Turn the meatballs frequently.

  4. Let them simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, adding more water if necessary.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the main protein that forms the body of the meatballs.
White bread
Soaked in milk, it keeps the meatballs moist and tender as they cook.
Eggs
Egg whites add lift and bind the mixture, while yolks add richness and cohesion.
Onion
Adds savory flavor and moisture through its grated juices.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites must be folded gently so air is kept in the mixture; overmixing deflates it and can make the meatballs dense and tough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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