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Potato Rissoles

Mashed potato shaped into small cakes, coated in egg and cracker crumbs, and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Mash the potatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Mix in the beaten egg until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into forms about three inches long.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat each rissole with egg and then with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in a wire basket in hot lard until light brown.

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 + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the mixture, giving the rissoles their soft, tender interior.
Egg
Binds the mashed potato so the rissoles hold their shape, and also helps the coating adhere.
Cracker crumbs
Form a dry outer crust that browns during frying and gives a crisp exterior.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough to crisp the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the rissoles absorb excess fat and turn greasy before the coating browns.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg. 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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