Name: Stuffing for Veal, Roast Turkey, Fowl, Etc.
Ingredients: ¼ pound beef suet (or beef marrow); 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 black or white pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 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, Etc.

Ingredients

¼ pound beef suet (or beef marrow)
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 black or white pepper
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 eggs (yolk and white)

Directions

Mince the beef suet finely and combine it with the bread crumbs in a bowl.
Add the parsley, marjoram or lemon-thyme, grated lemon peel, and chopped onion.
Season with pepper and salt, then mix well.
Pound the mixture thoroughly with the yolks and whites of the eggs until well combined.

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).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet: Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Provide the bulk and body that hold the stuffing together.
Eggs: Bind the mixture so it holds its shape rather than crumbling.
Onion: Adds savory depth and aroma to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture thoroughly with the eggs. Thorough mixing spreads the egg evenly through the crumbs and suet, so the binding is uniform and the stuffing does not turn out in loose, dry pockets.

Swap the white pepper

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

Thymefits better
Tarragonfits better
Sagefits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, parsley, marjoram, lemon, onion, 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, Etc.