Name: Meat Cakes
Ingredients: leftover meat (game or poultry); salt pork or ham or anchovy; coarse sea salt; black pepper; gravy (for serving)

Why it works: Meat and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,208 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Meat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Mince the leftover meat finely.
Add a little salt pork, ham, or anchovy.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then mix well.
Form the mixture into small cakes, about 3 inches long, 1.5 inches wide, and 0.5 inches thick.
Fry the cakes in a pan until they are light brown.
Serve with gravy, or bake them instead.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,208 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).