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Lentil Rissoles

Lentil rissoles are fried patties made from mashed lentils, butter, and seasonings, wrapped in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Lentil Rissoles

Why it works: Lentils and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lentil Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook the lentils until soft enough to mash.

  2. Add butter and seasonings; ensure the mixture is not too dry.

Shape the rissoles

  1. Roll the pastry thin and cut into rounds using a cutter or teacup.

  2. Place a small amount of lentil mixture on each round, fold, wet the edges, and seal.

  3. Coat the rissoles in egg and breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in oil for about 5 minutes until golden.

  2. Serve hot 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.

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.

  1. Lentils + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Lentils + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the bulk and body of the filling once cooked and mashed.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed lentil filling.
Shortcrust or rough puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky casing that holds the filling and browns when fried.

The step that matters

Keep the filling moist but not wet. A filling that is too dry will crack the pastry and leave the rissole crumbly, while excess liquid can make the pastry soggy and burst during frying. Seal the edges well so the filling stays enclosed while the pastry sets in hot oil.

Swap the lentils

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, nutmeg. 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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