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Crab Rissoles

Small fried balls of flaked crab mixed with cooked rice, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,762 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Crab Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine flaked crab, cooked rice, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Form the mixture into small balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in beaten egg white.

  2. Roll each ball in browned breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the rissoles in hot oil 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. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Crab + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Cooked crab
Provides the main body and flavour of the rissoles.
Cooked rice
Adds bulk and a softer texture to the crab mixture.
Egg
Binds the coating so the breadcrumbs stick to each ball.
Browned breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the rissoles in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the breadcrumb coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it crisps and browns. Hot oil sets the crust quickly, helping the rissoles hold their shape.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, rice, egg, flour. 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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