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Brain Cakes

Brain Cakes are fried patties made from calf brains, onion, eggs, bread crumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Brain Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Wash the brains in salt and water.

  2. Remove the skin from the brains.

Cook the mixture

  1. In a pan, sauté the onion with the bay leaf and peppercorns until soft.

  2. Add the cleaned brains to the pan and cook until firm.

  3. Chop the mixture and mix with eggs, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

Fry and serve

  1. Form into cakes and fry in hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Serve with a splash of vinegar.

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

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 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

Calf's brains
Form the main body of the cakes and set firm when cooked.
Eggs
Bind the chopped mixture so the cakes hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the cakes are less soft.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth as it softens in the pan.

The step that matters

Cook the brains until firm. Brains must be cooked enough to firm up before chopping and binding. Undercooked brains stay soft and fall apart when formed and fried, while the eggs and crumbs need a firm base to hold the cakes together.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, pepper, vinegar. 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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