Skip to main content
Main

Parsnip Balls

Parsnip balls are fried balls made from mashed boiled parsnips, egg, bread crumbs, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mash and season the boiled parsnips.

  2. Remove from heat and add one well-beaten egg while still warm.

  3. Once cooled, shape the mixture into balls about half the size of an egg.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling lard or Ko-nut until pale 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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  2. Parsnip + breadtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together110 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Parsnip + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled parsnips
Form the bulk of the balls and provide the soft, moist body of the filling.
Egg
Binds the mashed parsnips so the balls hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.
Lard or ko-nut
Conducts heat for frying and encourages browning of the crumb coating.

The step that matters

Add the egg while the parsnip is still warm, then let it cool before shaping. Warm mash lets the egg blend in evenly, while the cooled mixture is firm enough to shape without sticking or falling apart.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes