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Potato Balls

Potato balls are mashed potatoes mixed with parsley, chives, and egg yolk, formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Potato Balls

Why it works: Potato and chive work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 611 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the potatoes and mash them.

  2. Add chopped parsley, chopped chives, and egg yolk to the potatoes.

  3. Mix well and roll the mixture into balls about 1 inch in diameter.

Fry

  1. Fry the balls in hot oil until they are a nice 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. Potato + chivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together611 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Chive + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,624 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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 and give them a soft, starchy interior.
Egg yolk
Binds the mashed potato so the balls hold their shape.
Chives
Adds a mild onion-like aroma and fresh flavor.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, green herbal flavor.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot oil until light brown. Oil that is too cool lets the balls absorb grease and turn soggy, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the inside heats through. Frying at steady heat gives a crisp, golden crust and a fully cooked center.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, chive, 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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