No. 3116

Rissoles with Preserves and with Almond Cream

Rissoles a la Confiture et a la Creme d'Amandes

Roll out into a square layer, an eighth of an inch in thickness, one pound of fine short paste (No. 135) or puff paste parings (No. 146); cut the edges straight and range on the top at desired distances apart small balls of any kind of thick marmalade; wet the paste to form the rissoles (No. 161), and when they are cut out press down the borders of the paste with the fingers in order to diminish its thickness, then cut the rissoles again with the same pastry cutter, so as to have them all alike, and fasten the paste together. Dip them in beaten eggs, roll in bread-crumbs and plunge into hot fat. Cook them slowly, drain and roll in vanilla sugar (No. 3165), then dress on a folded napkin.

With Almond Cream.—Prepare the rissoles the same as for the above, replacing the preserves by small balls of almond cream (No. 40) placed an inch and a half from the edges and at the same distance from one another; finish them exactly the same.

← No. 3115 Rice with Apples Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3117 Savarin with Apricots →

For the Modern Kitchen

A fried jam turnover, dressed up in Ranhofer's cross-referencing style. The hinge is the seal: a rissole that opens in the fryer empties its marmalade into the fat and is finished.

The cross-referencesNo. 135 is Ranhofer's fine short paste and No. 146 puff paste; the parings called for are the offcuts left after cutting puff pastry, which no longer puff evenly but fry beautifully. All-butter puff trimmings or a sweet shortcrust both work. No. 161 is simply his general method for forming rissoles.
SealingThe doubled cutting is the point of the recipe. Press the border thin with your fingers, then stamp again with the same cutter so the two layers are flush, and crimp firmly. Any jam touching the edge will break the seal, so keep the filling well inside the line.
ThicknessAn eighth of an inch is thin, about 3 mm. Thicker paste will still be doughy inside when the crumb coating is brown.
Marmalade"Thick" is the operative word. A loose modern jam liquefies and bursts the pastry; use a stiff reduced preserve, or chill balls of jam firm before enclosing them.
Almond creamNo. 40 is Ranhofer's almond cream, of the frangipane family. Any firm frangipane will do; chill it until it can be rolled into balls.
"Cook them slowly"Ranhofer gives no temperature; slow frying here means moderate rather than hot fat. Hotter fat browns the crumbs before the pastry inside cooks, and a rush of steam from the filling can force the seam open.
Vanilla sugarNo. 3165 is Ranhofer's own vanilla sugar preparation; the page does not describe it here. Roll the rissoles while still hot so the sugar clings; a shop-bought vanilla sugar or sugar blitzed with a scraped pod serves.
The folded napkinA period serving convention: a linen napkin folded on the platter absorbs frying fat and keeps the pastry crisp. Draining on a rack over paper does the same job.
YieldA pound of paste rolled this thin gives roughly twenty rissoles, depending on the size of cutter used; Ranhofer specifies neither cutter size nor number of servings.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete working record of the French kitchen he ran for an American clientele, which is why an entry this brief leans on a web of numbered cross-references rather than repeating itself. Rissole is an old French word, generally traced to a Vulgar Latin root meaning reddened or browned, and it originally denoted a small fried pastry parcel of meat; by the nineteenth century the sweet version with jam or almond cream was standard in the repertory of entremets, the sweet or savoury dishes served after the roast. The almond cream variant belongs to the same family as frangipane tarts and pithiviers, and the vanilla sugar finish marks it as a dessert course rather than the savoury rissoles served earlier in a formal menu.