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Rissoles of Chicken

A small pastry roll filled with minced chicken and ham, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,497 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Rissoles of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Finely mince the remains of a cold chicken and half the quantity of lean cold ham.

  2. Mix the minced chicken and ham with enough white sauce to moisten them.

Shape the rolls

  1. Roll out the light pastry to about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Cut the pastry into pieces, each 1 inch by 2 inches.

  3. Place a small amount of the mixture on the center of half the pastry pieces.

  4. Cover with the other halves, pressing the edges together to form little rolls.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat plenty of lard or other frying medium in a frying pan until boiling hot.

  2. Fry the rolls until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes.

  3. Drain well and serve immediately on a napkin.

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. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Remains of a cold chicken
Provides the main savoury filling that forms the body of the rissole.
Lean cold ham
Adds a salty, savoury flavour to the minced filling.
White sauce
Moistens the minced filling so it holds together and stays tender.
Light pastry
Encloses the filling and turns golden and crisp when fried.
Lard or other frying medium
Conducts heat to brown the pastry quickly and evenly, giving a crisp exterior.

The step that matters

Fry in plenty of very hot fat. Frying in a deep layer of fat that is already boiling hot seals the pastry quickly so it browns and crisps before the filling becomes greasy. Cooking in cooler or scant fat lets the pastry absorb oil and turn soggy.

“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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