Why it works: Pork and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,387 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Hash Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Shape the cakes
In a bowl, mix the pork sausage, rolled crackers, and beaten eggs until well combined.
Form the mixture into round cakes.
Coat each cake in additional cracker dust.
Fry
Fry the cakes in a frying pan without any lard or fat, covering the pan closely while frying.
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.
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Pork + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,387 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Pork sausage
- Supplies the meat, seasoning and its own fat, which renders out to cook the cakes.
- Rolled crackers
- Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together as cakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the sausage and cracker mixture so the cakes keep their shape.
The step that matters
Frying covered without added fat. The sausage has to release enough of its own fat to keep the cakes from sticking and scorching. Covering the pan traps steam, which helps the centre cook through while the outside browns.
“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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