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Soyer's Recipe for Force Meats

A forcemeat made from veal, beef suet, panada, eggs, and spices.

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. Scrape the veal with a knife until only the fiber remains.

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

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

Make the force meat

  1. Pound the chopped suet in a mortar until fine.

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

  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; it should be delicate, firm, and flavorful.

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

Veal
Forms the lean, finely pounded body of the force meat, giving it its main texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and tender as it cooks.
Panada
Bread soaked in milk and dried absorbs moisture and helps bind the mixture smoothly.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs. Eggs must be added gradually while pounding so they emulsify into the mixture. Adding them all at once can split the force meat and leave it loose or greasy, and the poach test shows whether the texture is right.

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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