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Parsnip Cakes

A fried cake made from mashed parsnips, wheat flour, egg, and lard or beef drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Parsnip Cakes

Why it works: Parsnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Skin and mash the parsnips until fine.

  2. Mix in the wheat flour and beaten egg.

Fry

  1. Heat the lard or beef drippings in a frying pan.

  2. Add the salt to the hot fat.

  3. Spoon the parsnip mixture into small cakes and fry until one side is a delicate brown.

  4. Turn the cakes and fry the other side until done.

  5. Serve hot with a little of the frying fat drizzled on top.

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.

  1. Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Parsnip + wheattop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Wheat + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the cakes and add natural sweetness as they cook.
Wheat flour
Adds starch that helps the mashed parsnip hold together while frying.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes set firm rather than crumbling.
Lard or beef drippings
Frying fat that browns the outside of the cakes and adds savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. The fat must be hot before the cakes go in. Hot fat sears the surface quickly, forming a crust that holds the shape and browns evenly. A cool pan lets the cakes soak up grease and stick.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, flour, egg, beef):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, egg, beef. 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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