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Cottage-cheese Balls

Deep fried balls of cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, flour, and seasonings coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cottage-cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Make a thick white sauce using the milk and flour.

  2. Gradually beat the cottage cheese into the white sauce.

  3. Add the mashed potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and mix well.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into soft balls.

  2. Roll each ball in bread crumbs, then dip in beaten egg, and roll in bread crumbs again.

  3. Fry in a kettle of deep 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Cottage cheese + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together239 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cottage cheese
Provides the main body and creamy, tender filling for the balls.
Mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and body, helping the balls stay soft inside.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a white sauce that binds the mixture.
Egg
Binds the breaded coating so the crumbs adhere to the balls.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating during frying.

The step that matters

Dip in egg and re-roll in crumbs. Thin, even coating helps the crumbs stick; a loose or patchy crust can break open and let the soft filling leak into the hot fat.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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