Skip to main content
Main

Meat Cakes

A savory patty made from chopped cooked meats, cracker crumbs, butter, onion, eggs, salt, pepper, and lard or drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Meat Cakes

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

  1. Chop the onion very finely.

  2. Beat the eggs lightly without separating them.

  3. Melt the butter and mix it with the cracker crumbs.

Form and fry

  1. Combine the mixture with the eggs, chopped meat, onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Form the mixture into flat cakes.

  3. Fry the cakes in equal parts butter and lard or drippings 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.

  1. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + eggtop 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

Eggs
Bind the chopped meat and onion so the cakes hold their shape.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb the melted butter and add body that helps the cakes hold together.
Cooked meats
Form the main body of the cakes and provide their savory flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps the cakes brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes until golden brown. The cakes are already cooked meat, so the frying is mainly for browning and flavor. Frying over moderate heat gives a golden crust through the Maillard reaction while keeping the centers hot. Too much heat browns the outside before the interior warms through.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, egg, pepper. 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.

More meat cakes recipes

Broiled 4Lean 4Sausage 4 See all 26 →

You might also like

Meat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipesMince MeatMince Meat37 recipesMinced MeatMinced Meat27 recipes