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Cheese Rissoles

Cheese rissoles are small fried balls made from cream cheese, peanut butter, and spices, coated in biscuit crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,747 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Cheese Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the grated cream cheese, peanut butter, salt, cayenne pepper, and egg whites in a bowl. Mix thoroughly.

  2. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  3. Dip each ball into the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Roll each ball in biscuit crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the balls in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Cream cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Peanut + biscuittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Cream cheese + biscuittop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Cream cheese + peanuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cream cheese
Provides the soft, creamy body that forms the filling.
Peanut butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, nutty flavour.
Egg whites
Bind the filling so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Egg yolks
Act as a binding wash that helps the biscuit crumbs stick to the balls.
Biscuit crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Frying the coated balls in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns. Oil that is hot enough sets the crust quickly, so the filling stays intact and the coating turns golden.

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream cheese, butter, pepper, egg, biscuit):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream cheese, butter, pepper, egg, biscuit. 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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