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Fowl, Rissoles of

A savory meatball made from chopped cold fowl, tongue or ham, seasoned and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fowl, Rissoles of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cold fowl and tongue or ham together until smooth.

  2. Boil the bones and trimmings in water with lemon peel, laurel leaf, and garlic until reduced to about ½ cup.

  3. Strain the liquid and use it to moisten the meat mixture.

  4. Mix in browned flour, season with white pepper, salt, nutmeg, and chopped parsley, adding some gravy.

  5. Let the mixture sit for 2 to 3 hours to firm up.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Roll the balls in beaten egg and bread crumbs twice for a thick coating.

  3. Fry the balls in boiling lard, turning to brown all sides evenly.

  4. Serve with fried parsley in the center of the dish and the rissoles arranged around it.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Laurel + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,652 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold cooked fowl
Provides the main body and bulk of the rissole filling.
Browned flour
Absorbs liquid and helps bind the meat mixture so it holds its shape.
Beaten egg
Acts as a glue so the bread crumbs adhere to the outside of each ball.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the filling during frying.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the meat mixture.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the rissoles absorb grease and can fall apart or turn soggy. Turning them lets all sides brown evenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, lemon, laurel, garlic, flour, nutmeg, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, lemon, laurel, garlic, flour, nutmeg, parsley. 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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