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Forcemeat Balls

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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. Combine veal and suet in a marble mortar or wooden bowl, then beat until well mixed.

  2. Add sweet herbs, mace, nutmeg, lemon peel, pepper, salt, and egg yolks, and mix thoroughly.

Shape and cook

  1. Shape the mixture into balls or long pieces.

  2. Roll the formed pieces in flour.

  3. Fry in hot oil until browned.

  4. Boil in hot water for a few minutes if using in white sauce.

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.

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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and texture of the meatballs.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and tender as they cook.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and add richness to hold the shapes.
Flour
Dries the outside of the shaped pieces so they brown well when fried.

The step that matters

Frying until browned. Frying in hot oil browns the flour-coated surface through the Maillard reaction, which builds flavour and colour. Too low a heat lets the meatballs soak up oil and turn pale, while too high a heat can scorch the outside before the centre cooks through.

Swap the mace

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

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

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