Name: Mississippi Meat Cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped cooked meat; 3 tablespoons cracker crumbs; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 small onion, finely chopped; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Mississippi Meat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Melt the butter in a pan.

Mix and shape

In a bowl, mix the melted butter with the cracker crumbs, eggs, chopped meat, onion, salt, and pepper.
Form the mixture into flat cakes.

Cook

Sauté the cakes in butter or dripping until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat: Forms the bulk of the cakes and provides their savory, meaty flavor.
Cracker crumbs: Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together as a cake.
Eggs: Bind the mixture so the cakes keep their shape when cooked.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the cake surfaces brown in the pan.
Onion: Adds aroma and savory sweetness as it mixes through the cakes.

The step that matters

Sautéing the cakes until golden brown. The cakes are already cooked meat and only need surface browning. Over-high heat can scorch the butter and outside before the centre is heated through, while too little heat leaves them pale and soft. Moderate heat gives even browning through the Maillard reaction.