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Soyer's Recipe for Force Meats

A mixture of veal, beef suet, panada, spices, and eggs, pounded into a purée for use as a stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Soyer's Recipe for Force Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Cut the veal into long, thin slices and scrape until only the fiber remains.

  2. Pound the veal in a mortar for 10 minutes until it becomes a purée.

  3. Pass the veal through a wire sieve and set aside the remainder for stock.

Make the force meat

  1. Skin, shred, and chop the beef suet very fine, then pound it in a mortar.

  2. Add the panada to the suet and pound them together.

  3. Incorporate the veal into the mixture and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Work the mixture well and gradually add the eggs while continually pounding.

  5. To test, poach a small piece in boiling water; if it is delicate, firm, and flavorful, it is ready to use.

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.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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 and delicate flavor once pounded into a purée.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and tender when cooked.
Panada
Bread soaked in milk gives body and helps hold the mixture moist and smooth.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it sets firm when poached or cooked.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the eggs while pounding. Adding eggs too quickly can cause the mixture to separate or stay loose. Adding them slowly while working the mixture lets the proteins bind it into a smooth, cohesive force meat that holds its shape when cooked.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, bread, milk, pepper, egg):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, bread, milk, 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.

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