Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Beef or Veal Patties
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Shred the underdone meat and mix with a little fat and coarse sea salt.
Make and shape the paste
Make a plain paste using butter, eggs, and milk.
Roll the paste thin and cut it into the shape of apple puffs.
Fill the cut paste with the meat mixture, pinch the edges to seal.
Fry
Fry the patties in hot oil until they are a nice brown.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,703 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that helps the paste turn tender and flaky.
- Eggs
- Give the paste structure and help it bind and set as it cooks.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the paste and helps it roll out smoothly.
The step that matters
Pinch the edges to seal. If the edges are not sealed firmly, the filling can leak out during frying, and the patty may open or cook unevenly.
“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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