Does Anybody Remember Rissoles?

[BlackRat]

A staple diet for any serving RM in the 80's, along with Nasi Goren.

 

Sunday brunch, after a 'run ashore', rissoles, eggs, snorkers, tinned tomatoes and fried bread.

 

Outstanding!

[Horsetan]

.... after much complaint my mother replaced rissoles with "Brains Frozen Faggots" ....

 

Out of the frying pan, into the fire?

 

.....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.

 

Blame it on the Americans. Where I work, you can't move for fried chicken joints.

[bertiedog]

Perhaps it is pejorative to describe cooked meat as "leftovers", it demeans the Sunday Roast left to cold as a left over, whereas it is a source of the best meat for cold use and further cookery.

 

A good cook would dearly prize the cold meat, and cooking any quantity would reserve some of the expensive roast especially for further cooking or cold consumption.

 

The two world wars left a terrible reputation in the UK for leftovers, most people associating the term with food recovered from plates or spare from the kitchen, and of very dubious origin, and that was the reputation that the British Restaurants in the war had. They had to use absolutely everything, there was no rationing applied to them apart from short supply, so they served up the lot!

 

In the US the dish that did this most is Scapple, which is an old Dutch and English use of all the pigs bits, mixed with oat, barley or in the US with polenta (wheat) flour, cooked as a stiff mash, and then cooled, in a cake form, and then fried with butter.....very rich, but so tasty....nowadays considered American, but it came from Europe, with the Dutch, from it seems old English cooks used it first..

[Welchester]

snorkers

Good-oh

[trisonic]

 

 

In the US the dish that did this most is Scapple, which is an old Dutch and English use of all the pigs bits, mixed with oat, barley or in the US with polenta (wheat) flour, cooked as a stiff mash, and then cooled, in a cake form, and then fried with butter.....very rich, but so tasty....nowadays considered American, but it came from Europe, with the Dutch, from it seems old English cooks used it first..

 

"Scrapple" whilst being Pennsylvania Dutch is nothing like Rissoles. It's a collection from parts of the pig (including offal, brains, face, ears, and anything else they can find) cooked in a slab of jelly like mess. They then carve it like bread and fry it up for breakfast.

It is the most revolting of American foods.

They sell it in my local Supermarket and it even looks appalling.

 

Best, Pete.

[shortliner]

For those who believe in good, wholesome, British cooking can I recommend a Book called Good Housekeeping Country Cooking

ISBN 0 85223 145 8, by Elizabeth Ray. Superb, and well worth searching out. It even has a recipe for "Potato Rissoles"

 

EDIT - It appears to be out of print - but Amazon.co.uk has 4 second-hand copies

[Rugd1022]

Rissoles.... oh yes I can smell them now! Our Nan used to come round every Thursday and cook tea throughout the '70s and most weeks would bring a plate of them round, not everybody's cup of tea but I always liked them. At her funeral, the vicar gave her locally famous 'Rissole Run' a mention which raised a few titters...

[Anthony]

My father used to say 'Let bygones be rissoles'!! Says it all really!

 

Anthony

[skipepsi]

Stephen you seem to have the basics of a political movement there..............

[Horsetan]

Stephen you seem to have the basics of a political movement there..............

 

Would that be an internal movement?

[Tony_S]

Pete's description of Scrapple (as sold in his local supermarket!) sounds remarkably similar to one of the other things my mother served, "Haslet" sandwiches. Apparently viewed as a "delicacy" in some parts of the UK. I'd completely forgottten it until my son was shopping in Leicester and phoned home to ask what it was.

Tony

[PhilH]

Aahrissoles!

 

When we were at primary school that was as risque as it got - I can still remember mum asking what I wanted for dinner, my reply was aaahrissoles. Needless to say I got a belt round the ear. Scary to think that was 55 years or so ago now, and stupidly it still makes me chuckle.

[bluebottle]

Arhh.. the wonderful delights of Wikipedia......what they are describing is a version of a Rissole, ....a Battered, (or Crumbed), rissole!!!!!!

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

 

Poor old Wikipedia, yet again getting stick from an obvious enthusiast for the subject for getting such a contentious matter not quite right! I was introduced to the Yorkshire version of rissoles - savoury ducks - when my mother went off to nurse my ailing grandmother and left my brother and myself to our fathers culinary expertise. We lived on savoury ducks from a local butcher and Dad's own recipe for pancakes (referred to behind his back as "stomach busters") for three weeks until Mum reappeared to be greeted by our glad cries. I'm not sure what was in those savoury ducks, and I don't think I want to know...

(Edited to eliminate double negative)

[Fat Controller]

'Scraple' sounds like the 'Fromage du Tete', common in France- 'Brawn' rather than Haslet would appear to be the closest British equivalent.

Faggots, like a lot of the French baked terrines and pates, would originally have been a means of conserving the more perishable parts of a pig after slaughter- caul fat, rather than bacon, is often used to cover terrines during baking, as offal tends to dry out and become unpleasantly hard if exposed to direct heat. Waitrose's faggots, which Stationmaster recommends, use thinly-sliced bacon to protect the top of the ###### during baking.

If anyone really wants to try out some recipes, I commend Jane Grigson's 'Charcuiterie and French Pork Cooking'- despite the title, it has a lot of regional British recipes for things like faggots and Bath Chaps. I keep meaning to translate her ###### recipe and take it to the charcuitier in Coquelles, who can still get hold of the caul fat; the butcher in Hythe tells me they can't get hold of it over here.

Off to have some chorizo, chick-peas and pasta- long live cross-cultural influences in eating!

[BlackRat]

Good-oh

 

"Ands to stayshuns fer leevin arber...."

 

Top film

[Tony_S]

I'm not sure what was in those savoury ducks, and I don't think I want to know...

 

I can still remember the packet of Brains Faggots having the term "Savoury Ducks" printed on the label in a smaller typeface.

[DonBradley]

Known as Frikkadels in South Africa

 

A regular feature in menus in my household from my earliest memories onwards.

Originally, possibly due to the war, made from minced left over roast but later from freshly ground raw steak mince,with chopped onion, herbed and spiced, bound with beaten egg, baked with a covering of bacon rashers and served with mash and gravy.

DELICIOUS!

[nigcuberail]

Like some others here my Nan used to make them and I remember them fondly as they were delicious.

 

IIRC, she made them with chopped onion, sausage meat, egg and seasoning. I think a light covering of flour and into the frying pan.

 

Wonderful with mash, peas, gravy & apple sauce

 

Something very close to the taste and to be recommended are the pork Frickendellers (not sure about the spelling) sold by Lidl - and this would tie in with DonBradleys memories of Frikkadels from South Africa.

 

They are a seasoned pork pattie or "burger", a few minutes in a frying pan or under the grill and they are ready to eat.

[bertiedog]

 

"Scrapple" whilst being Pennsylvania Dutch is nothing like Rissoles. It's a collection from parts of the pig (including offal, brains, face, ears, and anything else they can find) cooked in a slab of jelly like mess. They then carve it like bread and fry it up for breakfast.

It is the most revolting of American foods.

They sell it in my local Supermarket and it even looks appalling.

 

Best, Pete.

To clarify, I did not actually compare Scrapple to Rissoles, Scrapple is in a league of it's own amougnst people who enjoy,or completely hate it, it used to be said that everything including the oink went into it, and Yes any supermarket version would be very inferior indeed,

 

If you want to try it, get some assorted fine chopped pork, kidney, and liver, and a pigs trotter, (for the natural gelatine), and cook it by boiling gently a couple of hours till tender, with salt, pepper, and pinch of allspice, and reduce the stock left a bit, fish out the bones, then add Course grade Polenta, stirring it in till the water is absorbed, and add a dash of oil, and stir and stir, adding water if it needs it, till the polenta is cooked, and the mixture comes away from the pan walls,

 

Then fill up flat cake tins with the mix to about an inch thick at most, and seal with cling film, and leave overnight in the fridge. The cakes keep a long time in a fridge, and even longer in a freezer.

 

The cake is sliced thinly and fried briskly in butter, and will be golden yellow, with crusty pork bits on the surface, served for breakfast....it is really rather good when made this way.

 

The British version used Porridge Oats, same method, but more like fried savoury porridge than with Polenta. Comes out brown colour, not bright yellow. The Dutch used Barley, but changed to Polenta, in the USA.

 

Stephen.

[shortliner]

Frikadellen (Lidl) and the mini- version from Aldi, both execellent. Haslet is rather like slightly spicy, cold sausage-meat, sliced on a sandwich (very nice) or served with potatos and other veg in summer - can be found on the meat counter in larger Tescos, and brawn (made from boiling down the less obviously edible parts of a pig with gelatine ( Poured hot into a basin and left to set, then served cold) My Mum used to make it, I remember it boiling away for hours on the Aga (somethimes refered to as "potted hough")

[Removed a/c]

I loved rissoles as a kid. If I remember correctly they were breaded floor sweepings

[bertiedog]

'Scraple' sounds like the 'Fromage du Tete', common in France- 'Brawn' rather than Haslet would appear to be the closest British equivalent.

Faggots, like a lot of the French baked terrines and pates, would originally have been a means of conserving the more perishable parts of a pig after slaughter- caul fat, rather than bacon, is often used to cover terrines during baking, as offal tends to dry out and become unpleasantly hard if exposed to direct heat. Waitrose's faggots, which Stationmaster recommends, use thinly-sliced bacon to protect the top of the ###### during baking.

If anyone really wants to try out some recipes, I commend Jane Grigson's 'Charcuiterie and French Pork Cooking'- despite the title, it has a lot of regional British recipes for things like faggots and Bath Chaps. I keep meaning to translate her ###### recipe and take it to the charcuitier in Coquelles, who can still get hold of the caul fat; the butcher in Hythe tells me they can't get hold of it over here.

Off to have some chorizo, chick-peas and pasta- long live cross-cultural influences in eating!

Basically Brawn is just pork meat, (all parts of the head etc.), and the natural Gelatine, Haslet has added filler, barley or oats etc, dependant on region, (and apples in Kent), and may have kidney and liver, again regional variations, and both have "jelly" consistency like a terrine, rather than the "stodge" of Scrapple, or the firmness of Haggis.

 

Caul is obtainable, dried or vacuum packed supplies via the net, or a real butcher. Most Scottish Butchers will supply easily, a must for real Faggots

 

Stephen.

[bertiedog]

'Scraple' sounds like the 'Fromage du Tete', common in France- 'Brawn' rather than Haslet would appear to be the closest British equivalent.

In a small Polish Shop the other day, idly buying decent smoked sausages, when a girl and her mother said " Blow me" (or words to that effect) "they make cheese from heads"..look here...... it say's "head cheese", quite disgusting! They asked the man at the till, who revealed it was Brawn, to which they asked why did the Poles called it head cheese........you can't win......

[trisonic]

Bertiedog, I bow to your infinitely superior knowledge of Scrapple to mine. May it stay that way..................

 

Best, Pete.

[bertiedog]

The best Haslet is said to be Lincolnshire, which is filled with breadcrumbs and sage and onion flavours, it has an egg added to the much stiffer mix, and sets to a solid block that slices more easily.

 

Apple Haslet from Kent and Sussex, is softer, but has the breadcrumbs and herbs, but the egg seems optional, and it is softer in texture, pork and apple, the perfect combination of flavours, wonderful with a salad, in thicker sliced strips.