Name: Forcemeat Balls for Soup Maigre
Ingredients: soft parts of a crawfish or a few shrimps; 1 anchovy; 1 hard-boiled egg yolk; ½ cup stale bread crumbs; ¼ teaspoon pounded mace; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; a little finely minced garlic; 1 raw egg

Why it works: Pepper and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,090 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls for Soup Maigre

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

Pound the crawfish or shrimps with the anchovy, hard-boiled egg yolk, bread crumbs, mace, cayenne, salt, and garlic in a mortar.
Work the mixture into a paste with the raw egg to bind it into dough.

Shape and fry

Roll out the dough and cut it into small balls the size of marbles.
Fry the balls in hot oil until they are a fine 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.

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.

Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Shrimp + garlictop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,743 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Shrimp + anchovytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,330 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw egg: Binds the mixture into a cohesive dough that holds its shape.
Stale bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the balls body and a soft texture.
Hard-boiled egg yolk: Adds richness and a fine, crumbly texture to the paste.
Crawfish or shrimp: Supplies the main seafood flavour and protein for the balls.

The step that matters

Frying until a fine brown. Frying in hot oil browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, adding flavour and colour. Oil that is too cool lets the balls soak up grease and turn heavy, while oil that is too hot can brown the outside before the inside is cooked.

Swap the mace

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

Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Thymefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, anchovy, egg, bread, pepper, garlic. 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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Forcemeat Balls for Soup Maigre