Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Meat Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine the minced cold meat and fat bacon in a bowl.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, and mix well.
Form the mixture into cakes.
Cook and serve
Fry the cakes in a skillet until golden brown.
Serve the meat cakes with gravy.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold meat
- Forms the bulk of the cakes and gives them their meaty body.
- Fat bacon
- Adds fat that moistens the cakes and helps them brown in the skillet.
The step that matters
Fry the cakes in a skillet until golden brown. The fat in the mixture melts and browns as the cakes cook, which builds flavour and a crisp crust. Frying over too low a heat can leave the cakes pale and greasy, while very high heat may brown the outside before the centre is heated through.
“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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