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Brain Cakes

Brain Cakes are small fried cakes made from calf or lamb brains mixed with eggs, flour, breadcrumbs, lemon peel, parsley, spices, butter, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brain Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Remove all fibers and skins from the brains and scald them.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the brains in a bowl with the eggs, flour, bread crumbs, lemon peel, parsley, and spices.

  2. Add enough melted butter to create a batter.

Fry

  1. Drop small cakes of the batter into boiling lard.

  2. Fry until light 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.

  1. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's or lamb's brains
Form the main body of the cakes, giving a soft, rich texture when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Flour
Thickens the batter and helps give the cakes body and structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add a little body so the batter holds together.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness and helps loosen the mixture into a workable batter.

The step that matters

Drop small cakes of the batter into boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough to set the outside quickly. Cold or crowded frying lets the cakes absorb grease and fall apart, while proper heat gives a browned, cohesive crust.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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