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Chicken and Ham Rissoles

A fried patty made from minced chicken, ham, mushrooms, and parsley wrapped in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Chicken and Ham Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a pan, melt the butter and sauté the shallots until soft but not browned.

  2. Add the minced chicken, ham, mushrooms, parsley, salt, pepper, and white sauce; heat thoroughly.

  3. Spread the mixture on a plate and let it cool.

Shape the rissoles

  1. Roll out the pastry to ¼ inch thick and cut out 2-inch rounds.

  2. Place a dessert spoonful of the mixture in the center of each round.

  3. Wet the edges with water or egg white, fold over, and press to seal.

  4. Brush with beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil or lard in a frying pan and fry the rissoles until golden brown.

  2. Drain on paper, garnish with parsley, and serve hot or cold.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Provides the main bulk and savoury meat flavour of the filling.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that deepens the filling.
White sauce
Binds the minced meats together and keeps the filling moist.
Light pastry
Forms a tender shell that crisps and browns when fried.
Egg
Seals the pastry edges and gives the coating a golden colour.
Butter
Enriches the shallots and adds rich, nutty flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the pastry edges. If the edges are not wet and pressed firmly, they can open during frying and let the filling leak into the hot oil.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, mushroom, pepper, shallot, butter, sauce):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, mushroom, pepper, shallot, butter, sauce. 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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