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Brain Cakes

Brain cakes are fried patties made from boiled brains, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, pepper, salt, and fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Brain Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Wash the brains with vinegar and 1 pint of cold water.

  2. Boil the brains for 10 minutes, then drain and chop them.

  3. Mix the chopped brains with breadcrumbs, parsley, pepper, salt, and the beaten egg.

Fry

  1. Heat the dripping in a frying pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan and fry 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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

  4. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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

Brains
Form the main body of the cakes, setting firm when boiled and fried.
Egg
Binds the chopped brains and breadcrumbs so the cakes hold their shape.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture can be shaped into cakes.
Dripping
Fries the cakes, adding fat for browning and a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the spoonfuls until golden brown. The mixture is soft and held together only by egg and crumbs, so it can break apart if the pan is not hot enough or it is turned too early. Enough hot fat sets the crust and browns the surface.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, egg, pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, pepper. 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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