Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Rissoles
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Chop the white part of the cooked chicken finely.
Add lemon peel, onion, white pepper, salt, nutmeg, and mace to the chicken.
Mix in butter and cream until well combined.
Shape and fry
Wrap the mixture in thin puff pastry, forming sausages.
Brush the sausages with egg yolk and coat with fine bread crumbs.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown and serve garnished with crimped parsley.
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.
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Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
-
White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,695 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooked chicken
- Provides the main body of the filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the chicken filling.
- Cream
- Keeps the filling moist and tender.
- Egg yolk
- Brushed on the outside to help the bread crumbs stick and promote browning.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Form a crisp golden coating when fried.
- Puff pastry
- Wraps the filling and becomes flaky and crisp when fried.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to brown and crisp the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the rissoles absorb oil and turn greasy before the pastry and filling are heated through.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lemon, onion, nutmeg, mace, butter, cream):
- Thymefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lemon, onion, nutmeg, mace, butter, cream. 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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