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Forcemeat for Quenelles

A seasoned meat mixture used as filling for quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Quenelles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Scrape the meat from rabbits or use lean meat from a knuckle of veal.

  2. Pound the meat in a mortar and pass it through a wire sieve.

Make the forcemeat

  1. In the mortar, combine ¾ pound of the meat, ½ pound of butter, and ½ pound of milk panada; mix and pound together.

  2. Add pepper, coarse sea salt, nutmeg, and grated lemon peel; continue to pound.

  3. While pounding, gradually add 4 to 5 well-beaten eggs.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean meat
Provides the protein that sets into a firm, sliceable structure when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat rich and tender rather than dry.
Milk panada
Adds moisture that keeps the forcemeat light and smooth.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the eggs while pounding. Adding the eggs slowly while pounding lets them emulsify fully into the fat and meat. Dumping them in at once can break the mixture and leave it grainy or loose.

“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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