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Fried Beef Cakes

Beef cakes made with chopped beef, mashed potatoes, egg yolk, and seasonings, fried in fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Beef Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the finely chopped beef and mashed potatoes in a bowl.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and parsley if using.

  3. Mix in the beaten egg yolk until well combined.

  4. Form the mixture into cakes about ½ inch thick.

  5. Dust each cake with flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the beef drippings, lard, or butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Fry the cakes until they are brown on both sides.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main body and savory meaty flavor of the cakes.
Mashed potatoes
Add moisture and softness, keeping the cakes tender inside.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold together while frying.
Flour
Dusted on the outside to help the cakes brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes until brown on both sides. Medium heat in a fat browns the surface through Maillard reactions while the interior heats gently. Too little heat leaves the cakes pale and greasy, and too much can scorch the flour before the center cooks through.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, pepper, egg, flour):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Turmericfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Dillfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, pepper, egg, 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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