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Rissoles of Cold Meat

A fried patty made from chopped cooked meat, mashed potatoes, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rissoles of Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat, mashed potatoes, parsley, onion, pepper, and salt.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and mix in the flour.

  3. Add the stock, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup; stir until it boils and thickens.

  4. Combine the thickened mixture with the meat mixture and beaten egg; mix well.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls with floured hands.

  2. Fry the balls in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin with fried parsley or in a border of mashed potatoes with brown gravy.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 meat
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the rissoles.
Mashed potatoes
Add moisture and softness, helping the mixture bind and stay tender inside.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the stock into a binding sauce for the mixture.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Onion
Adds savory depth and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying the balls in hot oil until golden brown. Oil that is hot enough sears the outside quickly, forming a crust that holds the shape and limits oil absorption. Oil that is too cool lets the balls soak up grease and fall apart.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, butter, onion, flour, sauce, ketchup):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, butter, onion, flour, sauce, ketchup. 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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