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Forcemeat Balls

A forcemeat mixture of veal and suet, seasoned with herbs and spices, formed into balls and fried or boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph (1762–1828) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Forcemeat Balls

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Take half a pound of veal and half a pound of suet, cut fine, and beat in a marble mortar or wooden bowl.

  2. Add a few sweet herbs, shredded fine, a little mace, pounded fine, a small nutmeg, grated, a little lemon peel, some pepper and salt, and the yolks of two eggs.

  3. Mix them well together, and shape into balls and long pieces.

Coat and cook

  1. Roll the shaped pieces in flour.

  2. Fry them until brown.

  3. If they are for use with white sauce, do not fry them; instead, put them in a sauce pan of hot water and let them boil a few minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

108Calories
7 gProtein
6 gFat
7 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Randolph (1762–1828). 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. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the meaty body of the forcemeat balls.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the balls moist and tender as they cook.
Eggs
Yolks bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Flour (in the method)
Light coating that helps the outside of the balls brown when fried.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Fry them until brown. Browning comes from surface heat driving Maillard reactions between the flour coating and meat proteins, which builds colour and flavour. Frying too gently leaves the balls pale and under-flavoured, while frying too hot can scorch the outside before the centre is cooked through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, nutmeg, lemon, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, nutmeg, lemon, pepper. 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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