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Potato Rissoles

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes, herbs, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, salt, white pepper or cayenne, parsley, and green onions or shallots.

  2. Add the egg yolks to bind the mixture together.

  3. Roll the mixture into small balls.

Fry

  1. Heat lard or butter in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the balls until golden brown and cooked through, turning as needed.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. White pepper + parsleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the rissole and give it a soft, tender interior.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Lard or butter
Conducts heat in the pan and helps the outside turn golden brown.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma that brightens the potato mixture.
Green onions or shallots
Add mild onion flavor and aroma to the potato mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until golden brown and cooked through. Medium heat lets the outside brown through the Maillard reaction while the centre heats through. Too high a heat browns the surface before the inside is hot, and too low a heat leaves the rissoles pale and greasy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, parsley, onion, egg, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, parsley, onion, egg, butter. 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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