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Protose Rissoles

Protose rissoles are fried patties made from protose, breadcrumbs, lemon thyme, pepper, salt, egg, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Protose Rissoles

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the Protose, Breadcrumbs, Lemon Thyme, Pepper, Salt, and Egg together to bind.

  2. Roll the mixture into shape.

  3. Dip the rissoles in Egg and then in Breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in very hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve with Pickled Damsons or Red Currant Jelly.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Thyme + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Protose
Forms the main body of the rissoles, giving them substance and a meaty bite.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the mixture, then form a crisp golden coating when fried.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the breadcrumb coating adhere.
Lemon thyme
Adds a bright, citrusy herbal aroma to the rissoles.

The step that matters

Fry in very hot oil until golden brown. Hot oil sears the breadcrumb coating quickly so it browns and crisps before the rissoles absorb excess oil and turn greasy or fall apart.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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