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Forcemeat for Veal, Turkey, Fotufe, or Rabbits

A forcemeat mixture for veal, turkey, fotufe, or rabbits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Veal, Turkey, Fotufe, or Rabbits

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Finely scrape the veal and mix with ham, suet, and bread crumbs.

  2. Add parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg or mace, and pound well.

  3. Incorporate the egg yolk to bind the mixture.

  4. If desired, add chopped parboiled onion, oysters, or anchovy.

  5. Ensure there is room for the stuffing to swell.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the lean meat base that gives the forcemeat its body and texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add bulk, giving the forcemeat a softer, lighter texture.
Veal suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and tender as it cooks.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Pounding the mixture well. Thorough pounding breaks down the meat fibres so the forcemeat becomes smooth and cohesive, rather than coarse and crumbly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, oyster):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, bread, parsley, pepper, egg, oyster. 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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