Skip to main content
Main

Potatoe Boulettes

A dish of mashed potato dumplings fried in butter or lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,052 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potatoe Boulettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Boil the potatoes until very dry, then mash them smoothly while warm.

  2. Mix in the butter, salt, nutmeg, and beaten egg yolks.

  3. Gently fold in the whisked egg whites.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into a pan of boiling butter or lard.

  2. Fry for 5 minutes over moderate heat until pale brown and light.

  3. Drain well and serve on a hot napkin.

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. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy base that becomes the light, soft body of the dumplings when dry and mashed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a tender texture and flavor.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness and structure to the dough.
Egg whites
Whisked into the mixture to add air, lightening the dumplings as they fry.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whisked egg whites hold air bubbles that lighten the dough; vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving the dumplings dense rather than light and puffy when fried.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, nutmeg, egg. 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.

More potato dumplings recipes

German 8Boiled 3 See all 44 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes