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Potato Rissoles

A fried potato patty coated in beaten egg and crushed crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix cold mashed potatoes with the beaten egg, butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Shape the mixture into egg-shaped balls.

Coat

  1. Roll each ball in the beaten egg.

  2. Coat each ball in crushed crackers.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot lard or dripping until light brown.

  2. Drain well in a colander.

  3. Serve in a hot, napkin-lined dish.

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

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 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 mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the rissole and hold its shape when mixed and shaped.
Beaten egg
Binds the potato mixture and gives the coating something to stick to.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed potato mixture.
Crushed crackers
Forms a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard or dripping until light brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs more oil and turns greasy before it browns. Good frying heat sets the crust quickly, so the rissoles stay crisp and hold together.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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