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Rissoles

Beef rissoles are small, fried patties made from finely chopped roast beef, herbs, and flour, coated in vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Rissoles

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling and dough

  1. Combine the chopped beef, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, and ¾ teaspoon of salt with the milk in a bowl.

  2. Combine the flour and butter on a mixing board, then add the baking powder and remaining salt.

  3. Mix in the cold water to form a firm dough, then knead and roll it out to ¼ inch thickness.

  4. Cut the dough into rounds using a biscuit cutter.

Shape and coat

  1. Brush the edges of each dough round with beaten egg.

  2. Place a spoonful of the meat mixture in the center of each round, gather the edges, and pinch them together.

  3. Roll each rissole in beaten egg, then coat with crushed vermicelli.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the rissoles in hot clarified fat for 5 minutes, cooking in batches to avoid cooling the fat.

  2. Drain on kitchen paper and serve warm, garnished with parsley.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Forms the savoury filling that gives each rissole its main flavour.
Flour
Provides the structure of the firm dough that encloses the filling.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and contributes to a rich texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the dough rise and become lighter when cooked.
Egg
Acts as a glue to seal the dough and gives the coating a golden browning.
Vermicelli
Crushed pasta forms a crisp, golden coating on the outside when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in batches in hot fat. Adding too many rissoles at once cools the fat, so they absorb more oil and fry unevenly instead of crisping quickly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, nutmeg, milk, egg, flour, butter. 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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