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Beef Cake

A baked loaf of finely minced roast beef mixed with breadcrumbs, onion, ham, parsley, egg, stock, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Beef Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Grease a plain mold or shallow cake tin.

  2. Coat it with bread raspings.

Make and bake

  1. Finely mince the beef and bacon.

  2. Mix all ingredients together, adding more stock if needed to combine.

  3. Press the mixture into the prepared mold.

  4. Bake until set.

  5. Let cool slightly before serving.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Forms the bulk of the cake and gives its meaty flavour and body.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb stock and bind the minced meat so the cake holds its shape.
Egg
Sets when baked, binding the mixture together into a firm cake.
Stock
Adds moisture so the mixture combines and stays tender while baking.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and sweetness as it softens within the cake.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture into the mold. Packing the mixture firmly and evenly helps it hold together when cut and bake to an even set without gaps or crumbling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, parsley, pepper, egg, bread, butter):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, parsley, pepper, egg, bread, butter. 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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