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Brain Cakes

Brain cakes are fried brain batter seasoned with cayenne, black pepper, sea salt, marjoram, and thyme.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Brain Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Soak the calves' brains in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Boil the brains in water with salt and vinegar for 5 minutes.

  3. Slice the boiled brains and beat them to a paste.

Make and fry the batter

  1. Mix the paste with eggs to form a stiff batter.

  2. Season the batter with cayenne pepper, black pepper, coarse sea salt, sweet marjoram, and thyme.

  3. Fry the batter in plenty of smoking hot lard until brown.

  4. Remove with a skimmer and drain on kitchen paper.

Serve

  1. Serve plain or with brown gravy.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Vinegar + thymetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' brains
Form the main body of the cakes, giving a soft, rich filling texture when mashed.
Eggs
Bind the mashed brains into a stiff batter that holds its shape when fried.
Lard
Fries the cakes at high heat, browning the outside and adding rich fat flavour.

The step that matters

Frying in smoking hot lard. The fat must be very hot so the outside sets and browns quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb grease and turn heavy and soggy.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Tarragonfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, pepper, marjoram. 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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