Why it works: Beef and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Marrow Balls for Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Form the balls
Cream the beef suet in a bowl.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until thoroughly blended.
Stir in the salt and enough cracker crumbs to form small balls.
Cook in soup
Drop the balls into boiling soup and cook for 20 minutes.
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.
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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that gives the balls richness and a tender, moist texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and help the balls hold their shape while cooking.
- Fine cracker crumbs
- Absorb the fat and add bulk so the mixture can be shaped into balls.
The step that matters
Add enough cracker crumbs to form small balls. The crumbs soak up the fat and egg and firm the mixture. Too few crumbs and the balls may break apart in the boiling soup. Too many and they become dense and dry.
“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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