Skip to main content
Main

Meat Cakes

A savory dish of minced meat and mashed potatoes formed into cakes, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Meat Cakes

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the underdone meat and any remnants of tongue or ham very finely.

  2. Mix the minced meat with the mashed potatoes.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  4. Add the meat mixture to the melted butter.

  5. Season with pepper, salt, and powdered sweet herbs.

  6. Stir until heated through.

  7. Remove from heat.

  8. Mix in the egg yolks.

  9. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into cakes.

  2. Coat the cakes in egg.

  3. Coat the cakes in breadcrumbs.

  4. Fry the cakes in hot oil until golden brown.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Underdone meat
Provides the main savoury flavour and bulk of the filling.
Mashed potatoes
Adds body and moisture so the mixture holds together when shaped.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the mixture taste moist and savoury.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it set when heated.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is sticky and hard to shape. Cooling lets it firm up, so the cakes hold their form and keep their shape in the hot oil.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, pepper, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, pepper, 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.

More meat cakes recipes

Broiled 4Lean 4Sausage 4 See all 26 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes