Skip to main content
Main

Parsnip Balls

A fried ball made from mashed parsnips, butter, salt, pepper, cream, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Parsnip Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mash the boiled parsnips in a bowl.

  2. Add butter, salt, pepper, cream or milk, and mix well.

  3. Stir the mixture over heat until it bubbles.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg, then let cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cool, shape the mixture into balls about one-third the size of an egg.

  2. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then coat with crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in boiling fat 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Boiled parsnips
Form the main body of the balls and provide their bulk and flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the mixture taste smooth and savoury.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture, keeping the mash soft and easy to shape.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture as it sets on cooling and helps crumbs adhere to the outside.
Crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. Stirring in the beaten egg over heat can scramble it, and a warm mash is too soft to hold its shape. Cooling lets the mixture firm up so the balls keep their form in the coating and hot fat.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, 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.

You might also like

Parsnip CakesParsnip Cakes12 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes