Name: Stuffing for Veal, Roast Turkey, Fowl, &C.
Ingredients: ¼ pound beef marrow (or beef suet); ¼ pound bread crumbs; 2 teaspoons parsley leaves; 1½ teaspoons sweet marjoram (or lemon thyme); 1½ teaspoons grated lemon peel; 1 onion, finely chopped; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 2 eggs, yolk and white

Why it works: Parsley and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,979 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stuffing for Veal, Roast Turkey, Fowl, &C.

Ingredients

¼ pound beef marrow (or beef suet)
¼ pound bread crumbs
2 teaspoons parsley leaves
1½ teaspoons sweet marjoram (or lemon thyme)
1½ teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 onion, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 eggs, yolk and white

Directions

Prepare the stuffing

Mince the beef marrow and combine it with bread crumbs, parsley, marjoram, lemon peel, and onion in a bowl.
Add salt, pepper, and the yolks and whites of the eggs. Mix thoroughly.

Stuff and cook

Stuff the mixture into the veal and secure it with a skewer or sew it closed.
Form some of the mixture into balls or sausages, then flour and fry or boil them.
Serve as a garnish or side dish with roast poultry, veal, or cutlets.

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.

Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,979 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together957 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef marrow: Adds richness and moisture, keeping the stuffing tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body and structure.
Eggs: Bind the mixture so it holds together when shaped or stuffed.
Onion: Adds savory depth and aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Mixing the stuffing thoroughly. Thorough mixing spreads the egg evenly through the bread crumbs and marrow, so the stuffing binds consistently. Uneven mixing leaves loose pockets that can crumble when shaped or fried.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, parsley, marjoram, lemon, pepper, egg):

Carrotfits better
Shallotfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, parsley, marjoram, lemon, pepper, egg. 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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Stuffing for Veal, Roast Turkey, Fowl, &C.