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Cheese Balls

Cheese balls are small fried balls made from grated cheese, egg white, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cheese 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 ↓

Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated cheese, beaten egg white, and red pepper, then mix with your hands and form into small balls.

  2. Coat the balls in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a deep pan until very hot.

  2. Fry the cheese balls for about 1 minute until golden.

  3. Serve hot, garnished with parsley.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 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

Grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and, when melted, the rich filling of each ball.
Egg white
Binds the cheese together so the balls hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot oil.

The step that matters

Frying in very hot oil. If the oil is not very hot, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns, and the cheese may leak out. Hot oil sets the crumb crust quickly, sealing the balls.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, pepper, 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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