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Rissoles of Calves' Brains

A savory patty made from calf brains, butter, flour, egg yolks, and beef marrow, wrapped in puff pastry and fried.

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

Rissoles of Calves' Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Soak the brains in warm water, skim, and boil in salted water for 15 minutes.

  2. Drain the brains and fry them in butter until they lose their fluidity.

  3. Sprinkle the brains with flour and fry briefly.

  4. Add enough broth to create a thick mixture.

  5. Beat the egg yolks and mix them into the mixture to thicken it; season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  6. Add the chopped beef marrow and let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry and cut into shapes; brush edges with beaten egg.

  2. Place a tablespoon of the mixture in the center of a pastry shape, cover with another pastry piece, and pinch edges to seal.

  3. Dip the rissoles in beaten egg, coat with bread crumbs, and fry in hot lard until golden.

  4. Serve hot, garnished with fried parsley sprinkled with salt.

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' brains
Form the main filling, becoming a thick, savoury mass when bound and cooked.
Butter
Enriches the brains during frying, adding richness and helping them soften.
Flour
Lightly coats the brains, helping the mixture thicken and hold together.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they set with heat, giving a firm, cohesive texture.
Beef marrow
Adds richness and fat, making the filling moist and well flavoured.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky outer case that encloses the filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the rissoles. If the pastry edges are not brushed with egg and firmly pinched, the seal may fail and filling can leak out during frying. Egg acts as a glue and pressing removes air gaps.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, pepper, beef, bread, 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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