Rissoles, or croquettes, are little balls made of savoury mince, bound together with egg and fried. This mince is generally made from the remains of cold meat, as follows: -

Take four tablespoonfuls of chopped lean beef, or mutton, or veal, two tablespoonfuls of chopped fat, two tablespoonfuls of chopped cold ham or bacon, a piece of onion the size of the thumb down to just below the first joint, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a piece of lemon-peel the size of the thumbnail, and as thin, chopped very small, a saltspoonful of thyme, a saltspoonful of black pepper, a third of one of cayenne, a saltspoonful of salt. Chop all very fine, and if possible send it all through a sausage-machine. Mix thoroughly together in a basin, and add an egg well beaten-up. Roll the mixture into balls the size round of a large walnut; flour them, or rather, roll the balls in a little flour, and fry them brown in a little very hot fat. (See No. 6, also see Fowl, Minced).

Rissoles (A Better Way)

Beat up two eggs, and keep some of the mixture to moisten the balls after they have been floured. Then bread-crumb them. (See No. 20.) Fry these a light brown, and serve with fried parsley. Some good brown gravy can be poured round these rissoles.

Cold turkey, fowl, etc., make excellent rissoles. Act exactly as above, only have two tablespoonfuls of chopped meat to one of lean ham or bacon and one of fat. (Also see Fowl, Minced).

When mushrooms can be obtained, they are an immense improvement to rissoles. The proportion should be three parts mixture to one part mushrooms - i. e., mushrooms should form one-fourth of the whole. It is a mistake to think that adding more egg will make the rissoles better. This is not the case. Only add sufficient raw egg to moisten the mixture sufficiently to bind it. Too much egg will harden the rissole when cooked. A very little rich gravy, which makes a hard jelly when cold, can be added with advantage. Red tongue will do instead of lean ham. Red tongue and bacon-fat make a nice substitute for ham.

Rissoles In Paste

Make some rissoles, as above. (See also Fowl, Minced.) Roll out some puff paste as thin as possible, and moisten each ball, instead of flouring it, with beaten-up egg. Then surround each ball with a thin coat of paste. Pinch the edge of paste together, and pinch off what is not wanted. These balls should be about as big round as a small walnut. Dip each ball of meat surrounded by paste in yolk of egg beaten up; or brush the ball over with a beaten-up yolk of egg; sprinkle some small broken-up vermicelli on each ball. The vermicelli will stick to the paste when egged over. Fry each ball in some very hot fat. (See No. 6.) As soon as they are a nice brown, take them out, and serve in a folded napkin, with fried parsley.