Skip to main content
Main

Potato Rissoles

A fried patty made from mashed potatoes, egg, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Potato Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato base

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash them.

  2. Season the mashed potatoes with salt and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Mix in a small amount of minced parsley, the egg, and enough bread crumbs to form a dough.

  2. Shape the mixture into small cakes or rissoles.

  3. Fry the rissoles in hot oil until golden brown on both sides.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the rissoles and give them a soft, tender interior.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so the rissoles hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and stiffen the mixture into a shapeable dough.
Minced parsley
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Fry the rissoles in hot oil until golden brown on both sides.. Oil that is hot enough sears the surface quickly, forming a crisp golden crust before the soft interior breaks apart or absorbs excess oil. Cooking on both sides ensures even browning and a firm exterior.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, egg, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes