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; mix well.
In a pan, melt butter and stir in cream; combine with the meat mixture.
Shape and coat
Wrap the mixture in thin pastry, forming sausages.
Brush with egg yolk and coat with fine bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry in hot oil until golden brown and serve garnished with 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).
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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.
- Egg yolk
- Brushed on the pastry to help the crumbs stick and encourage browning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the meat mixture.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and softness to the filling.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden outer coating when fried.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Oil that is hot enough sears the crumb coating quickly, forming a crisp crust before the filling overheats or the pastry absorbs too much oil. Too cool oil makes the rissoles greasy and soggy.
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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