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Brain Fritters

A fried dish made from boiled brains mixed with herbs, spices, bread crumbs, mashed potato, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Brain Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the brains.

  2. Chop the boiled brains with parsley and onion.

  3. Add marjoram, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon rind, bread crumbs, and mashed potato.

  4. Mix in the eggs until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry spoonfuls of the mixture in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot with lemon juice and garnish 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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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 fritters, giving a rich, savoury flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and set when fried, holding the fritters in shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture holds together while frying.
Boiled potato
Adds starch and moisture, softening the texture of the mixture.

The step that matters

Frying spoonfuls in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the fritters absorb excess fat and turn greasy. Enough heat sears the outside quickly, forming a golden crust that helps hold the fritter together.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, marjoram, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, bread, potato):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, marjoram, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, bread, potato. 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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