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Beef Cakes

Beef cakes are pan‑fried patties made with minced beef, potatoes, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. Pass the cold potatoes through a wire sieve using a wooden spoon.

  2. Add the minced beef, pepper, salt, mushroom ketchup, half of the egg, and melted butter, then mix thoroughly.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into round cakes about ½ inch thick.

  2. Brush the tops with the remaining egg.

  3. Fry in a basket in hot fat until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Drain and serve in a ring on a napkin or lace paper, garnished with parsley.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced beef
Forms the main body of the cakes and provides meaty flavour and substance.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and gives the brushed tops a golden colour.
Cold potatoes
Add bulk and softness to the mixture, helping the cakes hold a tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the cakes hold their shape.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the cakes absorb grease and cook unevenly before browning. Hot fat seals the surface quickly, so the cakes brown and stay moist inside.

Swap the potato

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

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

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