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Potato Rissole

A fried potato ball made with boiled egg yolks, herbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Potato Rissole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the parsley, sweet herbs, shallot, and onion.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped ingredients with the potatoes and egg yolks.

  3. Add the butter and mix well.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into balls and coat with flour or dip in eggs and bread crumbs.

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

Serve

  1. Serve on a dish with fried 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.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Shallot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

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 rissole mixture, giving it body and soft interior texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the potato mixture.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside brown and crisp in the fat.

The step that matters

Frying the coated balls in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns. Hot fat quickly sets the outer coating so the balls stay intact and golden.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, shallot, butter, parsley, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, shallot, butter, parsley, flour. 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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