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Rissoles, Beef

A small pastry filled with seasoned beef, baked or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Rissoles, Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the beef into thin slices, remove gristle, and chop finely.

  2. Mix the beef with parsley, bread crumbs, mace, pepper, and salt.

  3. Bind the mixture with a beaten egg. If too dry, add meat gravy and ketchup.

Shape the rissoles

  1. Roll out puff pastry to 1/8 inch thick.

  2. Place small balls of the meat mixture on the pastry, 2 inches from the edge and 1 inch apart.

  3. Moisten the pastry around the meat with water and fold it over the balls.

  4. Stamp out rounds and press the edges securely together.

Fry and serve

  1. Dust lightly with flour and fry in hot fat until browned, about 5-6 minutes.

  2. Drain and serve on a napkin garnished with parsley.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + eggtop 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

Cold cooked beef
Forms the main body of the filling and gives the rissoles their meaty flavor.
Beaten egg
Binds the chopped meat so the mixture holds its shape when shaped and fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold together with a softer texture.
Puff pastry
Forms the outer shell that puffs and browns when fried in hot fat.
Meat gravy
Adds moisture to the filling if the mixture is too dry.

The step that matters

Press the edges securely together. If the pastry seal is weak, the filling can leak into the hot fat while frying. Moistening the edges with water helps the layers stick before frying.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, bread, pepper, egg, meat, ketchup. 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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