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Potato Rissoles

A fried patty made from mashed potatoes, ham, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Potato Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mash the potatoes until fine and whip with a fork.

  2. Add pepper, butter, milk, and the beaten egg; mix well.

  3. Incorporate the chopped ham into the potato mixture.

  4. Form the mixture into round balls slightly larger than walnuts.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in the beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the rissoles in hot oil until golden brown.

  3. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the rissoles and give them a soft, tender interior.
Beaten egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the cracker crumbs adhere to the outside.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the potato mixture.
Milk
Moistens the potatoes so the mixture is easier to shape and stays soft.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the rissoles in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy and may fall off, while the browning reaction that gives flavour and colour depends on sufficient heat.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Leekfits less well

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