Does Anybody Remember Rissoles?

[edcayton]

....... and what were they, a predecessor(sp?) to burgers?

 

 

Ed

[skipepsi]

I do but I am not convinced I want to be!

[Tony_S]

I do (and I agree with Mick about not wanting to). I don't know if there were regional variations but the ones I was forced to eat in the Midlands in the 1950s and 60s were horrible.

[trisonic]

My old Mum (RIP) used to make them (I think they required left over meat from the roast...) they went well with lumpy gravy and mash.

 

Best, Pete.

[RedgateModels]

my grandad used to call them a**eholes, but then he was a plain speaking collier

[Welchester]

I remember them (not fondly) from school. They used to appear quite often in Private Eye's collections of misprints with the initial 'R' replaced by a 'P'.

[beast66606]

Delia is your friend

 

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/lamb/rissoles.html

 

I remember the Birds Eye ones with "fondness" ...

[Tony_S]

While the ones in Delia's recipe look the same shape as the ones we were expected to eat I suspect that they differ in every other respect; Delia's recipe doesn't mention choosing really gristly bits as the main ingredient. I think after much complaint my mother replaced rissoles with "Brains Frozen Faggots" as an evening meal.

[Stormbringer]

My dear old mum makes em from whatever meat is left on the turkey/chicken carcase after a roast. Very nice they are too.

 

Pete

[Oldddudders]

While the ones in Delia's recipe look the same shape as the ones we were expected to eat I suspect that they differ in every other respect; Delia's recipe doesn't mention choosing really gristly bits as the main ingredient. I think after much complaint my mother replaced rissoles with "Brains Frozen Faggots" as an evening meal.

I suspect that "eating faggots" could be subject to serious misinterpretation in some parts of the English-speaking world.

[bertiedog]

As with all food there are "the real thing" and the trash and rubbish, made, marketed, cobbled up at home, misrepresented or abused by people who have had bad examples. The UK delights in trashing and knocking its own fine food reputation, ruined by two world wars and austerity, and state school cooks!!!

 

Rissoles, made properly, are a excellent Old traditional English Dish, they have many regional recipes, but usually use a combination of cooked meat leftovers from Sunday Roasts, and fresh minced meat, with a egg binding the mixture together, they are spiced rather than herbed, which is really a skinless sausage, or a F a g g o t.

 

(Please note edit to place correctly used English cookery term, removed by, it seems, the US based software.)

 

An American hamburger is the nearest thing to a rissole, but is thinner and bigger in diameter..

 

A real rissole would have chilli, mace, and nutmeg as spices, and is as good, or bad, as you make it!!

 

Beef was used most, but lamb and pork were cooked as well. Rissoles would always be served with good real meat juice gravy, they were fried, or oven baked, and then covered with a rich gravy, and served piping hot with mashed potatoes.

 

Exactly the same recipe is used to make British Meat Balls, they are make from the same mixture and then fried lightly and then added to a stock gravy and cooked in the sauce, and then served. Meat balls were usually made from Pork or a mix of pork and beef, and often had Herbs added.

 

I sometimes wonder at the poor taste of the average Britain about food these days, they simply do not know what good food , well made, and well presented is any more.

[The Stationmaster]

I suspect that "eating faggots" could be subject to serious misinterpretation in some parts of the English-speaking world.

S*d those johnny foreigner chappiess and their peculiar ideas about our language - I like faggots, Waitrose do some very nice ones.

[bertiedog]

Would the Mods please understand the English use of the word F A G G O T S, and kindly remove the US based use and restrictions.

 

I well know that the word is used in other meanings , but we are not often likely to use it in connection with model railways anyway, but the subject did cover the use of an English word with 100% legitimate usage.

 

Stephen.

[Tony_S]

One of the advantages of moving from rissoles to faggots was that they were served with gravy. The accompaniment in our home to rissoles seemed to be pease pudding. Now in the past when I mentioned that this was something that the memory of made me shudder, many people tell me how lovely it was. The tinned version we had looked like yellow mushy peas mixed with lard.

[bertiedog]

I notice that the "Nanny Software" hates the singular of the "banned word", but loves the plural!!!!

 

This is all bit silly I know, do not take this complaint as serious, but we must defend the use of the British Langauge, it is far more debased by such strictures being imposed than the shock to those referred to, when used as an insult, something I am sure no member on this forum would dream of doing..............

 

Stephen.

[bertiedog]

One of the advantages of moving from rissoles to faggots was that they were served with gravy. The accompaniment in our home to rissoles seemed to be pease pudding. Now in the past when I mentioned that this was something that the memory of made me shudder, many people tell me how lovely it was. The tinned version we had looked like yellow mushy peas mixed with lard.

Try making your own pease pudding, from dried yellow peas, cooked with good meat stock, and then mashed with goose fat or real beef dripping, with a small amount of best butter added to give it a gloss, and a smoother texture, it is wonderful stuff.

[bertiedog]

For real "Faggots" , the mixture is cold meat leftovers, minced, plus liver and Kidney or lights, most usually Pork, but can be any meat.

It is a mixture, with added fine diced onion, and egg to bind, with herbs (sage) and spice like Mace and Allspice,(which is good with Pork) or Nutmeg which is good with beef. Pepper would also be added.

As you can see a recipe for these faggots is more complex than Rissoles.

 

This fine food came from the Midlands and is a very old recipe indeed, dating to well before the Tudor period, where it was first recorded. It became a poor man's food in the 1900's, turning into a way to use offal, cheap meat, and modern commercial ones seem to want to maintain the idea!!..featuring turkey offal, and recovered meat product and added soya.......uhh!.

 

Demand real food or make your own!!!!

[Mickey]

I always thougthat rissoles were the breadcrumb-coated, minced up fish and potato items available in the local chip shop; that the rest of the country seem to think are called fish cakes

[Tony_S]

I always thougthat rissoles were the breadcrumb-coated, minced up fish and potato items available in the local chip shop; that the rest of the country seem to think are called fish cakes

Wikipedia seems to state that a rissole is a breadcrumb or battered object as derived from some French word. I'm sure fish cakes were fish cakes in the Midlands, and rissoles were inedible!

My mother in law is vegetarian but she used to make an Indian version of rissoles that she called "cutlets". If my wife makes the same item she calls them lamb koftas. It gets confusing with not only regional variation on names but also variations in the same family.

[Fat Controller]

For real "Faggots" , the mixture is cold meat leftovers, minced, plus liver and Kidney or lights, most usually Pork, but can be any meat.

It is a mixture, with added fine diced onion, and egg to bind, with herbs (sage) and spice like Mace and Allspice,(which is good with Pork) or Nutmeg which is good with beef. Pepper would also be added.

As you can see a recipe for these faggots is more complex than Rissoles.

 

This fine food came from the Midlands and is a very old recipe indeed, dating to well before the Tudor period, where it was first recorded. It became a poor man's food in the 1900's, turning into a way to use offal, cheap meat, and modern commercial ones seem to want to maintain the idea!!..featuring turkey offal, and recovered meat product and added soya.......uhh!.

 

Demand real food or make your own!!!!

Definitely no 'left-overs', just offal (specifically liver, heart and lungs),minced belly pork, breadcrumbs, onions, egg to bind, sage, mace and pepper to season- the mixture is rolled into balls about 3" in diameter, then wrapped in pieces of caul-fat. The balls are then packed into a baking tray and cooked in a medium oven.

The name comes from 'fegati', an Italian word meaning liver, also used in both languages for a bundle of sticks (the same route gives 'facist', who took their name from the bundle of sticks used to give authority to Roman officals). The root probably goes back to Ancient Greek- 'phakelos', meaning a bundle.

Similar dishes exist in South-Eastern France, but are bulked out with Swiss Chard- they're called 'crepinettes' there, after the caul-fat ('crepes' are so-called for resembling this fat).

In Britain, they seemed to be confined to the West Midlands, South Wales, and parts of North Somerset.

My comfort food of choice; we used to get them from Llanelli Market when I was a child, then my mother started making her own when she could no longer buy decent ones. Lovely with Batchelor's Mushy Peas (Tesco's ones are too sweet).The best 'commercial' ones I've had in recent years come from Eynons of St Clears.

'Rissoles' (the name also probably of Italian origin) are minced or finely chopped meat, mixed with mashed (not creamed) potatoes, chopped onion and sometimes parsley- they're flattened to about 3/4", egg-washed, then breadcrumbed before frying. You'll sometimes encounter them as 'croquettes' in France, but only in a charcuiterie or transport cafe.

The Italians have a variant using left-over risotto, wrapped around a piece of mozzarella, egged, breadcrumbed and deep-fried- 'aranchini'

[Fat Controller]

S*d those johnny foreigner chappiess and their peculiar ideas about our language - I like faggots, Waitrose do some very nice ones.

 

Funny thing, this software- it accepted 'Gropecunt Lane' without a problem...

A friend once caused a scandal on a bus in Morocco, which was largely filled with Americans. He asked if anyone fancied a fag..

[bertiedog]

Arhh.. the wonderful delights of Wikipedia......what they are describing is a version of a Rissole, ....a Battered, (or Crumbed), rissole!!!!!! simple as that, and the word , like most English has French origins, or latin, or old English or Norse et al.......

 

Fish cakes are basically the same, but nearly always crumbed or battered, as the content is blander in flavour than meat versions, which naturally form a crust on frying.

 

Some versions of Rissoles are wrapped in Caul, which contains the meat better but these are usually made in the form of a sausage, to make it easy to roll up.

 

We should all take great delight that so many regional versions of these fine tasty foods exist, and should be made and eaten at home, the UK tends to takes delight in knocking and not supporting fine food from traditional sources..

 

Caul wrapped meat, with offal, and filler, barley etc, is the basis of Haggis.............and German Sausages, which are usually boiled.

 

Intestine wrapped pork with herbs is the basic sausage...............which are fried or baked.

 

Saveloys are fine ground meat, a paste, in a skin, and boiled or fried

 

Meat balls, Rissoles, and Faggots, Hamburgers, patties, all basically the same, with variants, spices or herbs or both, all can be battered or crumbed, baked or fried.

 

Enjoy and celebrate food, it is all good stuff..........

[JZ]

Strictly speaking, faggots are sausages, as they should be wrapped in pigs caul. Brain's faggots are not really faggots, but meatballs or rissoles as they are not wrapped and bear little resemblance to traditional faggots. But the are very nice. Vegetarian sausages are also rissoles as they have no casing, as both traditional and artifical casings are animal by-products.

[DonB]

This thread bought back memories of war-time Rissole offerings, I remember a particularly obnoxious variety served in the local "British Restaurant" (I think it was called). No idea what its constituents were.

[bertiedog]

The Italian version with "no Leftovers" is indeed very similar, but the earliest references by Sir Roy Strong to the English uses of the wording Faggots, does refer to the British use of cold meat as the basis, and seems to have always meant this over here.

Often it seems similar names for slightly different foods creep into the languages, Britain much more so with all the seafarers bringing home names and recipes, that then got used in day to day cooking.

 

Faggots of wood were rolled up and the meat food was made by rolling, so got the same descriptive name....

 

The particular food may have regional name and variety, such as rissoles in the Midlands, but the very same food could be a Kentish Pattie, Sussex Sausage, etc.every body has their own variant and name, what we do not want is factory produced trash, one recipe, low commercial standards and no choices.

 

Stephen.