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Rissoles, Pancake
Make some batter as for pancakes. It will be better if made two or three hours before it is wanted. Mince finely some cold cooked veal, and with it a quarter of its weight in lean ham or tongue. Season with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and grated lemon-peel. Fry a thin pancake in the usual way. When it is brown on the upper side turn it over, and put into the middle of it two table-spoonfuls of the minced veal. Fold it over at the ends, and at each side, that the meat may not escape, and fry the rissoles thus made till they are lightly browned. Drain them from the fat, and serve very hot. Time to fry the rissoles with meat, three or four minutes. Sufficient, five or six for a dish. Probable cost, 4d. each.
A leftovers dish: cold roast veal minced, wrapped in a thin crepe, and fried a second time. The whole thing hangs on the filling already being cooked, because three or four minutes in the pan only browns the outside.
- The batter'Batter as for pancakes' means a thin crepe batter: flour, eggs and milk with a pinch of salt, whisked smooth; the recipe gives no proportions of its own. The instruction to make it two or three hours ahead is sound: resting hydrates the flour and relaxes the gluten, giving a more tender, less rubbery pancake that folds without cracking.
- Cold cooked vealThis is a use-up recipe for the remains of a roast or a braise. Cooked chicken, turkey or pork stands in without altering the character; the meat should be chopped fine by knife rather than reduced to paste in a processor.
- Ham or tongueA quarter of the veal's weight, so about 2 oz ham to 8 oz veal. It is there for salt and savour, since cold veal is bland. Pressed tongue is now a delicatessen item in most places; prosciutto ends or a good cooked ham do the same work.
- Grated lemon-peelZest only, taken with a fine grater or rasp, no white pith. With the nutmeg it gives the Victorian forcemeat flavour that otherwise reads as missing from the seasoning.
- Moisten the fillingThe original mince is dry. A spoonful of thick gravy, bechamel or reduced stock stirred in before filling keeps the interior from being crumbly.
- Fold while it is in the panThe pancake is filled and folded on the second side, still hot and pliable, then browned in the same fat. Fold ends first, then sides, and press the seam down against the pan for a few seconds so it sets closed.
- Frying fat and heatUse enough clarified butter, lard or dripping to film the pan generously, at a medium-high heat. Three or four minutes total is only browning time — the filling is already cooked, so the aim is colour and heat through, not further cooking.
- YieldFive or six to a dish, one or two per person as a light course or supper. The "4d. each" is a period costing and no guide to anything now.
Rissole comes through French from an older roissole, ultimately from the Latin sense of something reddened or browned — the name describes the frying, not the filling, which is why nineteenth-century cookbooks apply it to almost any minced meat that has been enclosed and fried. This pancake-wrapped one belongs to the large section of Victorian household cookery devoted to the second appearance of a roast. In a period before reliable domestic refrigeration, cold cooked meat had to be used within a day or two, and a good cook was judged partly on whether Monday's veal came back to the table looking like a dish in its own right. Veal itself was far more common in British kitchens then than now, the calf being a routine by-product of dairying, which is why so many entries of this kind assume it is what is left in the larder.