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Beef Cakes

Beef cakes are fried patties made from minced roast beef, ham or bacon, herbs, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Beef Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the patties

  1. Mince the roast beef, ham or bacon, sweet herbs, salt, and pepper together.

  2. Add the beaten egg and mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into square cakes about ½ inch thick.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat the cakes in bread crumbs and dip in more beaten egg.

  2. Fry quickly in hot dripping for 5 to 6 minutes 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.

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

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

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

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

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Forms the main body of the patty and gives it its meaty flavour.
Large egg
Binds the minced mixture so the cakes hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, savoury fat that enriches the flavour of the patties.

The step that matters

Fry quickly in hot dripping. The coating needs hot fat to brown quickly and seal in moisture. If the fat is not hot enough, the crumbs absorb grease and the patties turn heavy and soggy before the centre is cooked through.

“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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