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Rissoles of Turkey or Chicken

A savory pastry-wrapped meat patty made from leftover turkey or chicken, ham or tongue, breadcrumbs, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rissoles of Turkey or Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the leftover turkey or chicken with the ham or tongue.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, chopped onion, melted butter, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Mix well.

Shape the rissoles

  1. Roll out the puff pastry and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Place a teaspoon of the meat mixture on each piece of pastry.

  3. Brush the edges with beaten egg, fold over, and seal tightly.

  4. Brush the tops with egg and dip in fine bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in butter until golden brown, about 5-6 minutes.

  2. Drain on a napkin and serve garnished 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  5. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover turkey or chicken
Provides the main meaty filling and bulk of the rissole.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky outer casing that puffs and crisps when fried.
Egg
Seals the pastry edges and glazes the tops for a golden colour.
Fine bread crumbs
Bind the filling and form a crisp, browned coating outside.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the coating brown when frying.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the pastry edges. If the edges are not sealed tightly, the filling can leak out during frying and the rissoles can open or turn greasy. Brushing with beaten egg helps the pastry stick firmly together before it is fried.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, bread, butter, pepper, nutmeg, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, bread, butter, pepper, nutmeg, egg. 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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