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Forcemeat Balls

Forcemeat balls are seasoned meat mixtures formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Forcemeat Balls

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a marble mortar, beat the scraped veal and shredded beef suet together.

  2. Add pepper, coarse sea salt, cloves, grated lemon peel, grated nutmeg, chopped parsley, chopped sweet herbs, shallot, young onion, and breadcrumbs.

  3. Mix in the yolk of egg to bind the mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into balls using a little flour.

  2. Fry the balls 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean veal
Provides the main lean meat body for the meatballs.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and tender as they cook.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and help the mixture hold together with a softer texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape.

The step that matters

Mixing in the yolk to bind. Too little binding leaves the balls crumbly and likely to break apart in the fat, while the mixture needs enough cohesion to keep its shape when rolled and fried.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, pepper, lemon, nutmeg, parsley, shallot):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, pepper, lemon, nutmeg, parsley, shallot. 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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