Name: Forcemeat of Suet
Ingredients: 1 ounce suet, finely chopped; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; rind of ½ lemon, chopped; 2 ounces bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon dried sweet herbs; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; 1 egg, beaten and strained

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat of Suet

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the suet as finely as possible.
Mix the suet with parsley, lemon rind, bread crumbs, dried herbs, pepper, and salt.
Moisten the mixture with the beaten egg and mix well.
This forcemeat is suitable for a boned and rolled joint.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 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).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 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

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body and a light, crumbly texture.
Egg: Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when cooked.

“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.