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Potato Balls Foe Soups

A potato-based quenelle used as a ball in soups, made with butter, cream, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Balls Foe Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato

  1. Bake the potatoes until done.

  2. Cut the baked potatoes in half.

  3. Scoop out the centers.

  4. Pass the hot potato through a sieve into a bowl.

Make the quenelle mixture

  1. Combine the potato puree with butter and cream in a pan.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Heat the mixture over medium heat.

  4. Stir the mixture until it forms a paste.

  5. Remove the pan from heat.

  6. Let the mixture cool slightly.

  7. Mix in the egg yolks.

  8. Mix in the beaten egg whites gently.

  9. Test a small amount by poaching to check for the right consistency.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that gives the quenelles their body once pureed.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture tender.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture as it sets.
Egg whites
Whipped lightly into the mixture to add air and lightness.

The step that matters

Mix in the beaten egg whites gently. Folding rather than stirring keeps the air in the egg whites, which keeps the quenelles light. Overworking deflates the foam and makes the texture dense.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Spinachfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, nutmeg, egg. 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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