Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Modern Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Chop suet or fat and mix with lean meat.
Add salt, cloves, mace, cayenne pepper to mixture.
Shape and bake
Shape mixture into cakes and place in baking dish.
Bake for 2½ hours until cooked through.
Serve
Serve hot with rich brown gravy or let cool to serve later.
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.
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + macetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
-
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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
- Lean beef or mutton
- Forms the main body of the cakes and gives them their meaty flavour and structure.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the cakes moist and tender as they cook.
- Ground cloves
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the meat.
- Ground mace
- Contributes a delicate, aromatic spice flavour to the meat.
- Cayenne pepper
- Adds gentle heat that sharpens the savoury flavour of the meat.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, mace, pepper):
- Carrotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
- Turnipfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, mace, pepper. 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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