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Potato Balls

Potato balls are fried balls of mashed potatoes mixed with egg, coated in crumbs, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Potato Balls

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine cold mashed potatoes and the egg.

  2. Form the mixture into balls the size of a large marble.

  3. Roll the balls in bread or cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat deep lard until smoking hot.

  2. Fry the balls until they are a delicate brown.

  3. Serve in a deep dish on a napkin.

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

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

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

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

  3. Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the balls and supply moisture and starch that hold their shape.
Egg
Binds the potato mixture so the balls hold together while frying.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns in the hot lard.

The step that matters

Fry in lard that is smoking hot. If the lard is not hot enough, the crumb coating absorbs fat instead of crisping quickly, leaving greasy balls and a soft interior. Hot fat sets the crust fast so the balls brown evenly and stay intact.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, 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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