Why it works: Flour and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Rissoles or Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Form the minced meat into balls and stamp them out into rounds with a cutter.
Place the rounds on a floured dish and arrange them in a frying basket.
Fry in plenty of hot fat until golden brown.
For a better appearance, brush with beaten egg and dip in crushed vermicelli before frying.
Alternatively, omit the pastry and shape the minced meat into walnut-sized balls, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry to make croquettes.
Serve hot on a dish covered with a napkin and garnish with fried parsley.
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.
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,588 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, egg, bread):
- Nutmegfits better
- Capersfits better
- Turmericfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, egg, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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