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Savoury Rissoles

Savory rissoles made with bread crumbs, cheese, mashed potatoes, egg, parsley, onion, salt, pepper, fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Savoury Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, grated cheese, mashed potatoes, egg, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and chopped onion until well combined.

  2. Shape the mixture into small rissoles.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat butter in a pan over medium heat and fry the rissoles until golden brown on both sides.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture so the rissoles hold their shape while frying.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the rissoles body and a light, crisp outer coating.
Mashed potatoes
Add moisture and softness to the filling, keeping the centre tender.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavour and helps bind the mixture while melting slightly.

The step that matters

Fry the rissoles until golden brown on both sides. Frying over medium heat lets the outside brown through the Maillard reaction, adding flavour and a crisp crust, while the centre heats through. Too high a heat browns the outside before the inside is hot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, cheese, potato, egg, parsley, pepper, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cheese, potato, egg, parsley, pepper, butter. 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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