Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Drop Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Chop the meat, suet, and rice finely.
Mix well and season with pepper and salt.
Roll the mixture into sausage shapes.
Coat and fry
Cover the sausages with egg and bread crumbs.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown.
Serve
Serve with made gravy poured around them.
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.
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,373 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,265 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold mutton
- Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the filling.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and juicy when cooked.
- Boiled rice
- Adds bulk and softens the texture of the filling.
- Egg
- Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick to the sausage shapes.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a coating that browns and turns crisp when fried.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Hot oil sears the crumb coating quickly, so it crisps and browns before the filling dries out. Oil that is not hot enough lets the coating soak up grease and turn soggy.
“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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