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Potato Balls

A fried dish of mashed potatoes shaped into balls and coated with crushed vermicelli or macaroni.

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

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until very dry, then mash them smoothly.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and warm with ½ cup butter and a few tablespoons of cream.

  3. Let the mixture cool slightly, then roll it into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Sprinkle crushed vermicelli or macaroni over the balls.

  2. Fry the balls until they are a light 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the balls, giving a soft, starchy interior once mashed smooth.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and softening the mashed potato.
Cream
Adds moisture and smoothness, keeping the mashed potato soft enough to shape.
Vermicelli or macaroni
Forms a crisp coating that browns in the hot fat, adding crunch.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool slightly before rolling. Mashed potato that is still very hot is soft and sticky, so it is hard to shape and may break apart. Cooling it slightly firms the starch so the balls hold their form in the fat.

“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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