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Potato Balls

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes, butter, egg yolk, and seasonings, coated in breadcrumbs.

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

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato mixture

  1. Combine hot mashed potatoes, butter, and egg yolk in a bowl.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, chopped parsley, celery salt, and pepper.

  3. Mix thoroughly and shape the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the balls in hot 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.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the body of the balls, giving a soft, moist interior.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture inside the balls.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape.

The step that matters

Shape and coat before frying. Hot potato mixture is soft and sticky, so it can fall apart if shaped loosely or left to warm. Coating with egg and breadcrumbs gives a barrier that helps the balls hold together and brown evenly in the hot fat.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, egg, parsley, 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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