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Meat and Potato Rissoles

A fried patty made from ground meat, mashed potatoes, onion, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat and Potato Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix ground meat, mashed potatoes, onion, egg, salt, and pepper.

  2. Shape the mixture into small patties.

  3. Coat each patty with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the rissoles until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Drain on paper towels before serving.

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

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

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

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 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

Ground meat
Provides the main protein and savory flavor, and binds the rissoles together as it cooks.
Mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and softness to the filling, keeping the rissoles tender inside.
Egg
Acts as a binder, helping the mixture hold its shape when formed into patties.
Breadcrumbs
Forms a crisp coating that browns during frying and helps the patties keep their shape.

The step that matters

Fry the rissoles until golden brown on both sides. Frying over medium heat lets the coating brown and the interior cook through without burning the outside. Too high a heat browns the breadcrumbs before the meat inside is cooked, while too low a heat leaves the coating pale and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, egg, pepper. 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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