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Brain Griddle Cakes

A fried cake made from calf brains, cornstarch, flour, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Brain Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Clean and skim the calf's brains, then soak them in ice water for 1 hour.

  2. Cover the brains with ½ cup boiling water, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice; boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the brains, drain the water, and rub them through a colander.

Make the batter

  1. Mix in 8 tablespoons of cornstarch and flour, 2 beaten egg yolks, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Beat well, then gently fold in the 2 beaten egg whites.

Cook

  1. Fry the mixture on a hot griddle in round cakes.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Calf's brains
Form the main body of the cakes, giving them a soft, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness to the cakes.
Egg whites
Whipped air lightens the batter, helping the cakes stay tender.
Cornstarch and flour
Provide starch that thickens the mixture and helps the cakes hold their shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the cakes rise and become lighter.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air that lightens the batter. Vigorous mixing or stirring after folding deflates the foam, leaving denser, flatter cakes.

“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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