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Dessert

Brain Cakes

Brain Cakes are fried brain fritters made with eggs, breadcrumbs, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Brain Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Clear the brains of strings and any fatty pieces.

  2. Chop the brains finely with a knife.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix in the egg yolks, bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, salt, flour, and cream until very smooth.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture, about the size of a small biscuit, into hot oil.

  2. Fry until they are a light brown.

  3. Garnish with sliced orange.

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. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Brains
Form the main body of the cakes, giving them a soft, meaty texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and add richness so the cakes hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the cakes stay tender rather than watery.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly so the spoonfuls hold together in the oil.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture, keeping the cakes smooth inside.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil. The oil must be hot enough to set the outside quickly and brown it. If the oil is too cool, the cakes soak up grease and become heavy and broken rather than crisp and golden.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

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