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Beef Cakes

Beef cakes are pan‑fried patties made from minced beef, onion, breadcrumbs, egg, butter, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt butter in a pan and sauté the onion until soft.

  2. In a bowl, combine minced beef, sautéed onion, breadcrumbs, egg, salt, and pepper.

Shape and cook

  1. Shape the mixture into cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in a little butter until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Serve hot or cold.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold beef
Provides the meat base that gives the cakes their savory body.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together in shaped cakes.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes keep their shape while cooking.
Onion
Adds moisture and sweetness, and softens the texture of the mince.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the cakes brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Frying the cakes until golden brown on both sides. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs a hot, dry surface. Cooking over moderate heat with enough butter gives flavour and colour, while a crowded or overly wet pan steams the cakes instead of browning them.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, 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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