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Rissoles

A small, fried or baked potato and egg patty with onion, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Rissoles

Why it works: Marjoram and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 455 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Rissoles

8 small balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil and mash the potato.

  2. Boil the egg until hard and the onion until soft.

  3. Finely shred the potato, egg, onion, and parsley, then mix well.

  4. Rub in the butter with the mixture.

Shape and cook

  1. Form into 8 small balls.

  2. Roll the balls in egg and bread crumbs.

  3. Cook in a little butter over the fire or in the oven 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.

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. Marjoram + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together863 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Potato
Forms the soft, starchy body of the rissole.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the coating set.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns during cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the rissoles brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Cook in a little butter until light brown. Too little heat or too much handling can leave the coating pale and greasy or let the rissoles break apart. Moderate heat lets the crumb crust brown and set while the centre stays moist.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, parsley, bread, pepper, marjoram, winter savory. 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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