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Parsnip Cakes

A fried cake made from boiled and mashed parsnips, seasoned with salt and pepper, formed into cakes, and fried in dripping.

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 flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the parsnips

  1. Scrape, wash, boil, and mash the parsnips.

  2. Let the mashed parsnips cool.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Flour your hands and form the mixture into cakes.

  2. Roll the cakes in flour.

  3. Fry in boiling dripping until golden brown.

  4. Drain on paper and serve hot.

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 + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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

Parsnips
Provide the main bulk and sweet, earthy flavor of the cakes.
Flour
Coats the outside so the cakes brown evenly and crisp when fried.
Dripping (or oil)
Conducts heat for frying, browning the surface and adding richness.

The step that matters

Fry in boiling dripping until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the floured surface quickly; if it is too cool, the cakes absorb grease and turn soggy instead of crisp.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Arrowrootfits about as well
  2. Okrafits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour. 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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