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Cheese Balls

Cheese balls are fried balls made from flour, butter, milk, cheese, spices, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Cheese Balls

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine the butter and flour over gentle heat until the butter is melted.

  2. Add the milk, heat well, and boil for 3-4 minutes.

  3. Stir in the pepper, salt, cayenne, mustard, and cheese until well mixed.

  4. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool slightly, then form into walnut-sized balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush the balls with the beaten egg and roll them in bread crumbs.

  2. Heat enough frying fat in a deep pan until smoking hot, then fry the balls until golden brown.

  3. Drain on paper towels and serve garnished with parsley.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stiff base that holds the balls together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the base stay smooth and tender.
Milk
Forms the liquid that the flour thickens into a binding sauce.
Cheese
Adds savoury flavour and body to the mixture.
Egg
Coats the balls so the bread crumbs stick and the crust sets and browns.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Frying the coated balls until golden brown. The fat must be smoking hot so the crumb coating sets and browns quickly. If the fat is too cool, the balls absorb oil and turn greasy before the crust forms.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, pepper, egg, cheese, milk, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, pepper, egg, cheese, milk, 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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