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Force Meat Balls

Small balls of chopped veal or other meat, bound with egg and bread crumbs, then fried until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Force Meat Balls

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped veal or other meat with the egg, butter or raw pork, and bread crumbs.

  2. Moisten the mixture with warm water or the water from stewed meat.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small balls.

  2. Fry the meatballs in a pan until they are browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped veal or other meat
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the balls.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help keep the balls tender rather than dense.
Butter or raw pork
Adds fat, which keeps the balls moist and adds richness.

The step that matters

Moistening the mixture. Adding the warm liquid gradually and mixing well lets the bread crumbs absorb it evenly. Too little moisture makes the balls dry and crumbly, while too much makes them too soft to hold their shape.

“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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