Name: Potato Rissolles a L’ltalienne
Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 2 beaten eggs; ½ cup grated cheese; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Bread crumbs for coating; Butter for frying

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 ↓

Potato Rissolles a L’ltalienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

Wash, peel, and pound the potatoes into a paste, then pass through a sieve.
In a bowl, combine the potato paste, parsley, beaten eggs, grated cheese, salt, and pepper. Mix the combined ingredients well.

Shape and cook

Form the mixture into lumps the size of a small egg.
Coat each lump in bread crumbs.
In a pan, heat butter and brown the rissoles, turning them carefully with a knife to ensure even cooking.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Form the bulk of the croquette, giving a soft, starchy interior once pounded smooth.
Beaten eggs: Bind the potato paste so the lumps hold their shape while cooking.
Grated cheese: Adds savoury flavour and helps bind the mixture.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp outer coating that browns in the butter.
Butter: Fat for frying that browns the coating and adds richness.

The step that matters

Turning the rissoles in the butter. Bread crumb coatings brown quickly in hot fat and can burn before the centre heats through. Moderate heat and careful, gentle turning let the crust colour evenly and keep the coating from tearing off.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, egg, cheese, pepper, bread, butter):

Capsicumfits about as well
Potatothe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, egg, cheese, pepper, bread, 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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Potato Croquettes255 recipes

Macaroni and Cheese102 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Potato Rissolles a L’ltalienne