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Parsnip Cakes

A savory cake made from mashed parsnips, butter, salt, pepper, fried in butter and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Parsnip Cakes

Why it works: Parsnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Parsnip Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the parsnips

  1. Scrape the parsnips and boil them until soft.

  2. Mash the parsnips while they are warm.

  3. Mix in the butter, salt, and pepper until well combined.

  4. Form the mixture into cakes about ¾ inch thick.

Fry and brown

  1. Heat equal amounts of fresh butter and lard in a frying pan.

  2. Once hot, add the cakes and brown them well on both sides.

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.

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.

  1. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Parsnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,051 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the cakes, providing starch and body once mashed.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the cakes brown in the pan.
Fresh lard
Conducts heat well for frying and adds to the browning of the cake surface.

The step that matters

Brown the cakes well on both sides. The fat must be hot before the cakes go in, otherwise they absorb grease and steam instead of searing. Good browning comes from the Maillard reaction on a hot, dry surface, so the cakes need enough heat and time to develop a golden crust.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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