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Force-meat and Garnishes

A forcemeat mixture of veal, pork, ham, and mushrooms, bound with bread, milk, butter, and seasonings, used as a border for pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Force-meat and Garnishes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the meat

  1. Chop the veal, pork, ham, and mushrooms very fine.

  2. Pound the mixture to a powder using a pestle.

Make the panada

  1. Cook the bread and milk together, stirring often, until the bread is soft and smooth.

  2. Set aside to cool, then add the butter and seasonings.

Combine and shape

  1. When cool, mix with the powdered meat thoroughly and pass through a sieve.

  2. Add the yolks of the eggs and mix well.

  3. For a border, place in a well-buttered mold and steam for 3 hours.

  4. Turn out onto a flat dish and place the hot entrée in the center.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Clear uncooked veal
Provides the lean meat base that gives the forcemeat its body and fine texture.
Fat pork
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk to form a panada that binds the meat and keeps it light.
Milk
Softens the bread into a smooth panada that adds moisture to the mixture.
Yolks of 4 eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that improves flavor and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Steaming the mold for 3 hours. Steaming gently sets the egg yolks and meat proteins into a firm, smooth loaf. Too much heat can curdle the eggs and make the texture grainy or rubbery, so the mold should cook at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, ham, milk, bread, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, ham, milk, bread, butter, 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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