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Potato Rissoles

A potato patty mixed with minced tongue, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Potato Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, parsley, and minced tongue.

  2. Roll the mixture into small balls.

Coat and fry

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

  2. Fry in hot oil for 2 minutes until golden 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Forms the soft body of the croquette that holds its shape when rolled.
Minced tongue
Adds the savoury, meaty flavour that defines the filling.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the balls so the coating adheres during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form the outer coating that crisps and browns in the hot oil.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil. The oil must be hot enough to set and brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy, and if it is too hot, the outside browns before the filling heats through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, egg, bread. 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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