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Brain Balls or Croquettes

Brain Balls are fried balls made from calf brains, eggs, herbs, breadcrumbs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brain Balls or Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Scald the calf brains for 10 minutes.

  2. Remove the skin and veins from the brains.

Shape and fry

  1. In a bowl, beat the brains with the egg yolks, sage, thyme, parsley, bread crumbs, flour, salt, and pepper.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

  3. Fry the balls until golden 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.

  1. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf brains
Form the main body of the balls, giving them a soft, rich filling.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the balls keep a firm texture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly and helps it hold together when fried.

The step that matters

Forming and frying the balls. If the mixture is too wet, the balls can fall apart in the hot fat. Frying at a steady heat browns the outside while the inside cooks through, so the surface sets before the balls break.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits about as well
  3. Sagethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, thyme, parsley, bread, flour, 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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