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Beef Cakes

Beef Cakes are small, fried patties made from minced roast beef, ham or bacon, herbs, egg, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Beef Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the roast beef and ham or bacon.

  2. Add sweet herbs, salt, pepper, and the beaten egg.

  3. Form the mixture into square cakes about ½ inch thick.

Fry

  1. Fry the cakes quickly in good dripping, coating them with bread crumbs and a little more beaten egg.

  2. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes 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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Forms the main body of the patty and gives it its meaty flavour and texture.
Egg
Binds the minced meat so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the cakes when fried.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, savoury fat that enriches the flavour of the minced meat.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes quickly in good dripping. Hot fat sets the egg coating and browns the crumbs quickly, creating a crisp crust before the inside dries out. Frying slowly lets the cakes absorb grease and turn dry or soggy.

“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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