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Force Meat Balls for Soup

Meatballs made from cooked veal or fowl, breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, and seasonings, dropped into soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Force Meat Balls for Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meatball mixture

  1. Mince one cupful of cooked veal or fowl meat.

  2. Mix the minced meat with a handful of fine bread crumbs.

  3. Rub together the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs with a tablespoon of milk.

  4. Add the egg-milk mixture to the meat and breadcrumbs.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

  6. Add a half teaspoon of flour.

  7. Bind all together with two beaten eggs.

Shape and cook

  1. Flour your hands well.

  2. Shape the mixture into little balls the size of a nutmeg.

  3. Drop the meatballs into the soup about twenty minutes before serving.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

700Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
110 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot 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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

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

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked veal
Provides the main meat body and flavour of the meatballs.
Two beaten eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it hold its shape while cooking.
Hard-boiled eggs
Their yolks add richness and a smooth, tender texture to the mixture.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and keep the meatballs tender rather than dense.

The step that matters

Drop the meatballs into the soup about twenty minutes before serving. The meatballs are delicate and can break apart if handled roughly. Simmering them gently in the soup for about twenty minutes lets the egg proteins set so they hold their shape without turning tough.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, bread, milk, egg, pepper):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, bread, milk, egg, 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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