Skip to main content
Main

Rissoles

Beef rissoles are small, fried meat‑filled dough rounds seasoned with parsley, nutmeg, and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
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

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

Make the dough

  1. Combine the flour and butter on a mixing board.

  2. Add the baking powder and remaining salt to the flour and butter.

  3. Mix into a firm dough with the cold water.

  4. Knead and roll the dough to ¼ inch thick.

  5. Cut the dough into rounds with a biscuit cutter.

Fill and coat

  1. Beat the egg until light.

  2. Brush the edges of the dough rounds with the beaten egg.

  3. Place a small amount of the meat mixture in the center of each round.

  4. Gather the edges over the meat.

  5. Pinch the edges together.

  6. Roll each filled rissole in the beaten egg.

  7. Crush the vermicelli to a powder and coat the rissoles with it.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat clarified fat in a pan.

  2. Fry the rissoles in batches for 5 minutes until golden brown.

  3. Drain the rissoles on kitchen paper.

  4. 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
Provides the meat filling, which is cooked through and seasoned inside the pastry.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough that encases the filling.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the dough tender and short when rubbed into the flour.
Egg
Binds the coating and, beaten, helps the vermicelli crust adhere and brown when fried.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, lightening its texture as it cooks.
Vermicelli
Forms a crisp, golden crumb coating on the outside when fried.

The step that matters

Pinch the edges together firmly. If the seal is weak, the filling can leak into the frying fat and the rissole may open or break apart while frying. A well-sealed edge keeps the meat inside and the coating intact.

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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes