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Lentil Rissoles

Lentil rissoles are small fried patties made from mashed lentils, butter, spices, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Lentil Rissoles

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lentil Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook the lentils until soft enough to mash.

  2. Add butter, pepper, salt, and nutmeg to the lentils.

  3. 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 pastry round, fold, wet the edges, and seal.

  3. Coat the rissoles in egg and breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the rissoles in hot 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Lentils + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the bulk of the filling, becoming soft and mashable when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mashed lentil filling.
Pastry
Encloses the filling and crisps into a golden outer shell when fried.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the rissoles.

The step that matters

Ensure the mixture is not too dry. A dry filling lacks the moisture to stay cohesive, so it can crack the pastry or fall apart when sealed and fried. Enough butter and moisture keeps it pliable and holds the rissoles together.

Swap the lentils

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

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Lentilsthe original

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