In the north of France, rissoles de Coucy [fr] are made with meat or fish and can be baked or fried.

[2] In the 19th century, Mrs Beeton said French rissoles were "Pastry, made of light puff-paste, and cut into various forms, and fried.

However her recipes for everyday British meals described rissoles which contained breadcrumbs but were not coated with anything, just fried (see illustration).

[3] In Great Britain during and after World War II, rissoles were typically an economy measure, made from cooked meat remaining from the Sunday roast dinner.

These rissoles are meat (typically beef), or fish in Yorkshire, mashed up with potato, herbs, and sometimes onion.

In some regions where the name denotes a Wiener Schnitzel, the term kotlet siekany (literally: "chopped cutlet") is used instead.

In Brazil, they are often filled with heart of palm, cheese, ham, ground meat, chicken or shrimp.

Rissoles were made by butchers and housewives to use offcuts of meat, then finely minced with the adding of leftover bread crumbs, abundant flour, eggs, vegetables and herbs to improve the flavour.

The filling is wrapped inside the skin, then the package is rolled upon breadcrumbs and fried in ample amounts of hot cooking oil.