Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Meat Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the minced cold meat and mashed potatoes with butter and seasoning.
Form the mixture into small flat cakes.
Dust each cake with flour, then brush with milk.
Toss the cakes in flour again.
Fry and serve
Fry in hot fat until golden brown.
Alternatively, brush with egg, toss in breadcrumbs, and fry.
Drain and serve immediately.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together786 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold meat
- Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the cakes.
- Mashed potatoes
- Binds the mixture and keeps the cakes moist and tender inside.
- Butter or dripping
- Adds richness and flavour to the mixture and carries heat when frying.
- Flour
- Dry coating that helps the cakes form a crust and brown when fried.
- Milk
- Helps the flour coating stick and promotes even browning in the pan.
The step that matters
Fry in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the coated cakes absorb oil and turn greasy and soggy instead of forming a crisp, browned crust. Frying them without over-crowding the pan keeps the temperature steady.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, flour, milk, egg):
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, flour, milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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