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Farce or Forcemeat for Raised Pies

A forcemeat mixture of lean veal, bacon, herbs, and eggs for raised pies.

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

Prepare

  1. Scrape the bacon and veal to remove sinews.

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

Season and bind

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

  2. Add the yolks of raw eggs to bind the mixture into a malleable paste.

  3. Mix in the chopped truffles, mushrooms, and shallot sparingly.

  4. For fowl, game, or rabbit pies, add the livers and some ham.

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

What each ingredient does

Lean veal and fat bacon
Provides the meat base, with fat from the bacon keeping the forcemeat moist and tender.
Crumb of a french roll
Absorbs moisture and gives the forcemeat a softer, lighter body.
Yolks of raw eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape as a paste.
Truffles
Add a concentrated earthy aroma and flavour.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury depth to the mixture.

The step that matters

Mixing in the truffles, mushrooms, and shallot. These add strong flavour and moisture, so adding them sparingly keeps the forcemeat from becoming wet or overpowering and helps it hold together.

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.

“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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