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Frickadels

Mutton meatballs simmered in curry sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Frickadels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Soak the bread in milk, then squeeze out excess milk and beat with a fork.

  2. Rub the tomatoes through a fine sieve.

  3. Mix the soaked bread, tomato pulp, mutton, onion, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and beaten egg.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into small rissoles and coat with egg and bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the rissoles in hot fat until browned.

Stew in curry sauce

  1. Place the rissoles in curry sauce and stew gently for about 30 minutes.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat body and savory flavor of the rissoles.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the coating set during frying.
Stale bread
Absorbs milk and keeps the rissoles moist and tender inside.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and gentle acidity to the mixture.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the mutton.

The step that matters

Fry the rissoles in hot fat until browned. Frying in hot fat sets the egg and bread crumb coating quickly and browns the surface, so the rissoles hold their shape and gain flavor before stewing.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, mutton, tomato, pepper, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, mutton, tomato, pepper, nutmeg, 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.

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