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Cheese Ball - Easy

"This is the easiest and best cheese ball. Don't be scared by the horseradish! I don't like it, but it tastes great in this recipe."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and horseradish work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 491 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

24 servings
Prep5 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. In a bowl, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth, about 2 minutes.

  2. Stir in the shredded cooked corned beef and prepared horseradish until evenly combined, about 1 minute.

  3. Scrape the mixture onto plastic wrap, gather the wrap around it, and shape into a ball about 4 inches (10 cm) across.

  4. Refrigerate the cheese ball for at least 1 hour until firm.

  5. Unwrap and serve chilled at room temperature for a short time before slicing or spreading.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + horseradishtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together491 recipes

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

  2. Cream cheese + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together168 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Cream cheese + horseradishtop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together100 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, beef):

  1. Onionbetter flavor fit
  2. Chivebetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).