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Farce or Forcemeat for Raised Pies

This recipe uses raw egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Farce or Forcemeat for Raised Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Scrape the bacon and veal to remove sinews.

  2. Pound the bacon and veal together in a mortar.

  3. Add the crumb of the French roll, seasoning salt, spices, savory herbs, and parsley; pound until well incorporated.

  4. Mix in the yolks of the raw eggs to bind the mixture into a malleable paste.

  5. Fold in the chopped truffles, mushrooms, and shallot, using the shallot sparingly.

  6. For fowl, game, or rabbit pies, add the livers; for pigeons, include some ham; for woodcocks and snipes, add the trail.

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

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

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, truffle, shallot, mushroom, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, truffle, shallot, mushroom, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More pie forcemeat recipes

Game 4

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