Name: Meat Cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups chopped cooked meat; 3 tablespoons cracker crumbs; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 small onion, finely chopped; salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the onion very fine.
Beat the eggs lightly without separating them.
Melt the butter and mix it with the cracker crumbs.

Form and cook

Combine the butter mixture with the eggs, meat, onion, and seasoning.
Form the mixture into flat cakes.
Sauté the cakes in butter or dripping until golden brown.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat: Forms the bulk of the cakes and gives them their savoury flavour.
Eggs: Bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape when cooked.
Cracker crumbs: Absorb the melted butter and help give the cakes body and structure.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the cakes brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Sauté the cakes until golden brown. Cooking over steady heat lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction, which builds flavour and colour. Too little heat leaves the cakes pale and soggy, while too much browns the outside before the centre is cooked.