My mum’s rissoles

One of the first posts I wrote on my blog was about rissoles, they are something which trigger great memories for me! I’ve seen ‘posh burgers described as rissoles… No, they are definitely not rissoles, patties maybe but not rissoles; rissoles are made with cooked meat which is then minced, shaped and cooked again, not raw meat which is minced then shaped and cooked. The word itself comes from French as you might guess, which comes from Latin and is somehow connected to ‘red’, but since cooked meat is brown I’m not sure how that works as etymology.

I’ve been looking at recipes for rissoles – not that I need one, I’m just interested. I’m surprised that some of the recipes use uncooked meat – how is what they make not a burger? A burger has raw meat, a rissole has cooked… well, in our family’s mind anyway! In some recipes there are all sorts of extra vegetables – often uncooked…

You see, the thing with rissoles is that they are Monday’s meal to use up left over meat and vegetables from Sunday. The cooked roast beef (or sometimes mutton) was minced along with cooked carrots and onion (which sometimes had to be fried up specially) In some recipes I notice that left over potato is added, and herbs too – herbs even in my 1931 cookery book – which also adds zest of lemon, nutmeg and curry powder! British cooks have used herbs, spices and seasoning just about forever! I have seen old recipes, as well as modern ones where there is a coating of breadcrumbs instead of flour… however, Mum used flour and here is her recipe:

Mum’s rissoles

• left over from a roast cooked beef (or mutton)
• left over cooked carrots
• left over or otherwise fried onions
• a dollop of tomato sauce
• an egg or two, beaten
• a jolly good pinch of salt and shake of pepper (for authenticity it should be white pepper – even if it does make you sneeze as you add it)
• seasoned flour

1. mince the meat and vegetables together
2. add the tomato sauce and seasoning and stir well
3. form into flattened rounds, about the size of the central part of the palm of your hand (they shouldn’t be too big)
4. dip into egg and seasoned flour
5. fry, preferably in dripping until they are crispy on the outside and quite dark (not burned) but still moist on the inside
6. eat with mash and tinned peas and gravy

There is such a particular taste to rissoles made like this – the flavour of the meat is subtly altered… maybe we need a roast next Sunday and have rissoles on Monday!