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Forcemeat for Stuffing Boned Fowls

A forcemeat mixture for stuffing boned fowls, made with chopped meat, crumbs, butter, herbs, celery, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Stuffing Boned Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the meat of fowl or veal finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat with bread or cracker crumbs, melted butter, parsley, onions, sage, thyme, pepper, salt, and celery.

  3. Moisten the mixture with stock or leftover gravy until desired consistency is reached.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 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

Fowl or veal meat
Provides the body and savory flavor that give the forcemeat its substance.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and fat, giving the mixture structure and a light, tender texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat that enriches the mixture and keeps it moist and tender as it cooks.
Stock or leftover gravy
Moistens the crumbs and meat so the stuffing holds together and stays moist.

The step that matters

Moistening the mixture. Crumbs absorb liquid gradually, so adding stock or gravy a little at a time lets you reach a moist but not soggy consistency. Too much liquid makes the forcemeat heavy and loose.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, butter, parsley, sage, thyme, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, butter, parsley, sage, thyme, 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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