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Forcemeat Patties

A savory patty made from a mixture of chicken, veal suet, flour, and various meats, baked until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Forcemeat Patties

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pans

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Prepare the pans as you would for chicken patties.

  3. Fill the pans with a well-seasoned light forcemeat.

  4. Cover and bake until cooked through.

  5. Serve with a little cullis added to the forcemeat.

Make the paste and line the mold

  1. Melt veal suet or beef marrow in a stewpan over heat until lukewarm.

  2. Mix melted fat with flour and a little water to form a paste.

  3. Knead the paste well and rub fresh butter inside a mold.

  4. Strew vermicelli over the butter.

  5. Roll the paste to ½ inch thick and line the mold with it.

Fill and bake

  1. Layer chicken, sweetbreads, mushrooms, artichoke bottoms, truffles, and morels inside the paste.

  2. Cover with a layer of light forcemeat and seal with more paste.

  3. Bake gently until done.

  4. Turn out of the mold, make a small hole in the top, and fill with cullis.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + artichoketop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Mushroom + artichoketop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main meaty filling, giving the patty its substance and texture.
Veal suet or beef marrow
Adds fat that keeps the paste and forcemeat moist and rich as it cooks.
Flour
Combines with the melted fat and water to form a sturdy paste that holds its shape.
Egg
Helps bind the forcemeat so it sets firm when cooked.
Sweetbreads
Contribute a tender, delicate texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake gently until done. Forcemeat is a delicate mixture of minced meat and fat that can toughen, dry out, or split if cooked too hard or too fast. Gentle heat lets the proteins set evenly while keeping the filling moist.

“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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