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Rissoles in Paste

A meat patty wrapped in pastry, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rissoles in Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Pound any kind of cold meat.

  2. Thicken good gravy with cream or butter, season with salt and pepper.

  3. Mix the meat with the sauce until well moistened.

Shape the rissoles

  1. Roll out pastry dough into oval pieces.

  2. Place a large tablespoonful of the meat mixture on one end of the dough.

  3. Fold the dough over, press the edges together, and scallop them.

  4. Brush the tops with egg yolk and sprinkle with vermicelli.

Fry

  1. Fry the rissoles until golden 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.

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. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

  2. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

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

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,248 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Cold meat
Pounded meat forms the bulk of the filling, giving the rissoles their savoury body.
Good gravy
Moistens the meat so the filling holds together rather than drying out.
Cream or butter
Thickens the gravy and adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the filling.
Pastry dough
Encloses the filling and crisps and browns when fried.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it promotes even browning and a glossy golden finish.

The step that matters

Press and scallop the edges. Sealing the edges tightly keeps the filling inside during frying; a weak seal lets juices and filling escape into the hot oil.

“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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