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Forcemeat Balls for Ragouts, &C

Forcemeat balls are small meatballs made from veal, beef suet, herbs, breadcrumbs, and egg yolks, boiled or fried before adding to ragouts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls for Ragouts, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine veal, beef suet, parsley, thyme, marjoram, savory, shallots, pepper, salt, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, and egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Pound the mixture well until combined.

Shape and cook

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Boil or fry the balls before adding them to any dish.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 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

Lean veal
Provides the main meaty body and protein structure of the forcemeat.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the balls moist and tender as they cook.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and help it set when cooked.
Shallots
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Pounding the mixture well. Thorough pounding breaks down the meat and fat so the mixture binds evenly. Under-worked forcemeat can crumble or cook up with an uneven, lumpy texture.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, shallot, pepper):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, shallot, 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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