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Forcemeat for Veal or Turkey Roasted

A forcemeat mixture of suet, bread, herbs, onion, and eggs used to stuff veal or turkey before roasting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Veal or Turkey Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the suet and grated bread in a bowl.

  2. Add the parsley, marjoram, thyme, lemon peel, onion, pepper, and salt, then mix well and bind the mixture with 1 or 2 beaten eggs until consistent.

  3. Use the forcemeat to stuff veal or turkey before roasting.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich as it cooks.
Grated bread
Provides body and absorbs fat and moisture to give the stuffing a soft texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when stuffed and roasted.
Onion
Adds savoury flavour and aroma to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Binding with eggs. Eggs set when heated and hold the crumbs and fat together. Too little egg leaves the forcemeat crumbly, while the right amount keeps it cohesive and sliceable after roasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, marjoram, lemon, thyme, pepper, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, marjoram, lemon, thyme, 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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