Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Forcemeat Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the forcemeat balls for 45 minutes.
Mix flour with cold water and ¼ pint of soup.
Stir the mixture into the pot.
Add lemon juice and hard-boiled yolks.
Let it simmer for 10 minutes, then transfer to a tureen.
If eggs are scarce, pound yolks with salt and add raw yolk.
Roll mixture into small sausages and cut into small pieces.
Dust with flour and place on a plate.
Boil in water, then transfer to cold water.
Drain before adding to soup or dish.
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.
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Blueberryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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