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Very Savoury Rissoles

Small rounds of forcemeat sealed around pounded chicken and fried in butter until light brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Very Savoury Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rissoles

  1. Make the forcemeat No. 1 firm with the egg yolk.

  2. Roll the forcemeat thin on a floured board.

  3. Cut the forcemeat into small rounds.

  4. Place a little pounded chicken in the center of half the rounds.

  5. Moisten the edges with water or egg white.

  6. Cover with the remaining rounds.

  7. Seal securely.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in butter until light brown, about 5-7 minutes.

  2. Drain.

  3. Dry well 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat no. 1
Forms the outer casing that holds the chicken filling together while frying.
Egg yolk
Binds the forcemeat so it holds its shape when rolled and cut.
Pounded chicken
Forms the savoury filling enclosed inside each rissole.
Butter
Conducts heat in the pan and browns the outside, adding richness and flavour.

The step that matters

Seal securely. If the edges are not firmly sealed, the filling can leak out during frying. Moistening the edges with water or egg white helps the two layers of forcemeat bond together.

“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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