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Brain Cakes

Brain Cakes are fried patties made from boiled brains, herbs, spices, egg yolk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brain Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Wash brains in cold water, then in hot water, removing skin and fibers.

  2. Boil brains in salted water for 2–3 minutes, then drain.

Make and fry the cakes

  1. Beat brains with parsley, sage, salt, mace, cayenne pepper, egg yolk, and cream.

  2. Optionally add a little flour and grated lemon peel to the mixture.

  3. Drop small cakes of the mixture into a frying pan and fry until light 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 their soft, rich texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold together when fried.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the cakes tender inside.
Flour
Adds body to the mixture, helping the cakes firm up and hold their shape.

The step that matters

Drop small cakes into the frying pan. If the mixture is too wet or the pan is not hot enough, the cakes spread and steam instead of browning. Small, firm portions with the egg yolk binding them keep their shape and brown evenly.

“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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