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Rissoles, Cold Mutton, Chicken, Turkey, Veal, Etc
Prepare the mince, and proceed as in the last recipe, substituting mutton, veal, or poultry, for the beef. With veal and poultry, the weight of a fourth part of the meat in lean ham, tongue, or bacon, may be added to the mince, and the flavouring may be varied to suit the palate.
A variation entry rather than a standalone recipe: Cassell's assumes you have just read the beef rissole method, in which cold cooked meat is minced, bound with a very thick sauce, shaped, crumbed and fried. What follows fills in the parts a modern cook needs to reconstruct it.
- The binding is the whole recipeRissole mince is held together with a stiff panada or reduced brown sauce, on the order of a quarter to a third the volume of the meat, cooked down until it leaves the side of the pan; no proportion is given here. Too little and the rissoles collapse in the fat; too much and they taste of paste.
- Chill before shapingSpread the bound mince on a plate and refrigerate until firm, at least an hour, before rolling into balls or cones. Warm mixture will not take an even coat of egg and crumb, and it is the coating that keeps the fat out.
- "The weight of a fourth part"For every 1 lb of minced veal or poultry, add 4 oz of lean ham, tongue or bacon, chopped fine rather than ground. It is there for salt and savour, since cold cooked veal and chicken have very little of either.
- FryingFry until the crust is set and coloured, two to three minutes; the book gives no temperature, but roughly 350-375F in deep fat is the modern equivalent. The meat is already cooked, so the aim is a hot centre and a crisp shell, not further cooking.
- Flavourings the book leaves to youVictorian cookery books commonly suggest, for mutton, a little chopped onion, thyme and a spoonful of the meat's own gravy; for veal and poultry, mace, grated nutmeg, lemon zest, parsley and cayenne. Season the mince assertively -- it dulls once cold and fried.
- Cold roast meatThis is a leftovers dish and depends on meat that has been refrigerated promptly and used within three or four days. Discard the dry outer edges and any gravy that has stood at room temperature.
- Yield1 lb of minced meat plus its ham and sauce makes about twelve rissoles, enough for four as a main course with a sharp sauce or a green salad.
Rissole came into English from French, where the word descends from Old French forms such as roissole and ultimately from a Latin root meaning reddish; the verb rissoler, to brown, belongs to the same family rather than being the source. By the nineteenth century the word had settled in British kitchens to mean almost any minced-meat mixture bound thick, crumbed and fried. Its place in Cassell's is thoroughly practical: a Victorian household roasted large joints and a whole bird at a time, and the second and third days of a leg of mutton or a turkey had to be made appetising again. The instruction to add ham, tongue or bacon to veal and poultry is the tell -- pale meats needed borrowed salt and colour, and cured pork was a cheap source of both. That the entry simply points back to the preceding beef recipe reflects how these dictionaries were built: one method taught properly, then a chain of substitutions covering whatever the larder happened to hold.