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Force-meats, Garnishes, Etc

A forcemeat mixture of veal, bread, butter, eggs, and cream sauce shaped into quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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-meats, Garnishes, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Pound the veal and scrape it with a knife.

  2. Pound it in a mortar and rub it through a sieve.

Make the bread paste

  1. Soak the inside of a loaf of bread in tepid water for 1-2 minutes, then squeeze it dry.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the bread with 1 ounce of butter and stir over heat until it forms a smooth, stiff paste. Add a pinch of salt and let it cool between two plates.

Make the mixture

  1. In a mortar, combine 12 ounces of prepared veal, 6 ounces of fresh butter, and 8 ounces of bread paste; pound well.

  2. Add 3 whole eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Incorporate 2 more egg yolks and the cream sauce, seasoning with salt, pepper, and mace to taste.

  4. Once the mixture is smooth, transfer it to a bowl to cool.

Poach and shape

  1. To cook, bring a saucepan of salted boiling water to a boil.

  2. Shape the meat mixture with two tablespoons and drop it into the boiling water.

  3. Test the first quenelle; if too soft, add more egg; if too hard, add more bread paste or sauce.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the lean meat that forms the body of the quenelle.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mixture tender after cooking.
Bread crumbs
Forms a stiff paste that gives the quenelles body and helps them hold their shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during poaching to hold the quenelle together.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and softness so the quenelles stay light rather than dry.

The step that matters

Testing the first quenelle. The mixture must be balanced: too soft and it will fall apart in the water, too hard and it will be dense. Eggs add binding, while bread paste or sauce adds body and softness, so a test poach lets the cook adjust before shaping the rest.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, bread, cream, sauce, pepper, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, bread, cream, sauce, 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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