Follow us
Feed your appetite for cooking with Penguin’s expert authors
Get our weekly email
Sign up
Inspired by a nineteenth century recipe, these Beef Cakes are an ingenious and delicious way to use up leftover beef.
Available to download for UK customers for 99p for a limited time only.
This recipe is an adaptation of something I found in a nineteenth-century recipe book, and a great way for making cold beef into a tasty and appetising new dish. The recommmendation was for it to be served hot for breakfast, but this might be a little too out of the ordinary for modern tastes. I can see it being a great brunch dish or an easy Monday-night supper, especially if prepared beforehand from the Sunday joint. The quick frying of the assembled cakes is only intended to colour the tops and bottoms of the potato; the heat won’t reach the meat patty. The cakes can then be chilled until needed and then only require a thorough warming in the oven before serving.
| 150g | cold, preferably underdone beef |
| 50g | lean bacon |
| 25g | fresh suet |
| 1 | shallot or small onion, finely chopped |
| 1tbsp | walnut ketchup (pickling liquid from a jar of pickled walnuts) |
| 4 tbsp | chopped fresh parsley |
| 2-3 tbsp | beef stock or 1 tbsp Bovril mixed with 2 tbsp hot water, cooled |
| 400g | mashed potato |
| salt and pepper | |
| butter, for frying |
Preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.
Mince or finely chop the beef and bacon. Add the suet, chopped onion, parsley, ketchup and stock. Season with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly and divide into 4 portions. Shape into patties.
Season the mashed potato and divide into 8 portions. Spoon a layer of mashed potato on top of each meat patty and pat into shape.
Turn the patty over and add a second layer of potato. The cakes should now resemble a burger in a bun, but with potato in place of the bun.
Melt a little butter in a pan and fry the cakes for 3-4 minutes on each side over a high heat, until nicely browned and starting to crisp. Transfer to a baking tray and warm through in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
Latest ebook deal
Deja Food, from Great British Bake Off Alum Mary-Anne Boermans, is a return to the food of times past. It celebrates how we used to eat: giving time and care to less expensive cuts of meat, being thrifty where possible and using up leftovers to their fullest extent.
Available to download for UK customers for 99p for a limited time only.
