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Beef Cakes

Beef cakes are pan‑fried patties made from minced beef, parsley, boiled potatoes, egg, bread crumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine minced beef, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  3. Mash the cold boiled potatoes and mix with the beef mixture.

  4. Add the egg and bread crumbs, mixing until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Form the mixture into cakes and fry in the hot fat until golden brown on both sides.

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 + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Minced beef
Provides the main protein and meaty flavour of the cakes.
Cold boiled potatoes
Add moisture and body, helping the cakes hold a soft, tender texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while frying.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add structure, helping the cakes stay firm.
Butter
Adds richness and a savoury, browned flavour.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat until golden brown on both sides. The fat must be hot enough to brown the surface quickly. Browning creates flavour and a crisp crust, while frying in cool fat lets the cakes soak up grease and fall apart.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

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