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Fried Rissoles

A fried patty made from cold meat, suet, breadcrumbs, herbs, egg, stock, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Fried Rissoles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat ½ lb of clarified dripping in a saucepan.

  2. Finely chop the cold meat until you have about 2 tablespoons.

  3. Chop 2 oz of suet as finely as possible.

  4. Grate enough bread to have more than 2 tablespoons for coating.

  5. Wash and dry 2 sprigs of parsley, then chop finely to yield 1 tablespoon.

  6. Chop a sprig each of marjoram and thyme, discarding the stalks.

Mix and shape

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, suet, and 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, herbs, egg, stock, and flour, and mix well.

  3. Shape the mixture into small balls, then coat them in the remaining bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the rissoles in the hot dripping until golden brown.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the bulk and savoury flavour of the rissoles.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the rissoles moist and rich when fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture in the mix and form a crisp, browned coating.
Egg
Binds the mixture as its proteins set, helping the balls hold together.
Flour
Absorbs liquid and helps the mixture hold its shape when formed.
Stock
Adds moisture so the mixture is soft enough to shape without drying out.

The step that matters

Frying in hot dripping. The dripping must be hot before the rissoles go in. Hot fat sets and browns the outside quickly, which seals the coating and limits fat absorption; cool fat lets the rissoles soak up grease and can cause them to break apart.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, marjoram, thyme, egg, flour):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, marjoram, thyme, egg, flour. 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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