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Potato Balls

A fried ball made from grated boiled potatoes, parsley, butter, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Potato Balls

Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Grate the boiled potatoes into a bowl.

  2. Add the chopped parsley and melted butter, and mix well.

  3. Beat in the yolks of 2 eggs and the white of 1 egg until combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small balls.

  2. Roll the balls in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the balls in hot fat until they are brown.

Serve

  1. Serve around the edge of fried or broiled fish.

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

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when cooked, holding the balls together.
Potatoes
Form the bulk of the balls, giving a soft, starchy interior.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the interior tender.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating as they brown in the hot fat.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot fat until they are brown. Hot fat quickly browns and crisps the crumb coating while the potato inside heats through. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs more oil and the balls turn greasy and heavy.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, butter, egg, bread. 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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