Name: Forcemeat for Roast Veal, Turkey, Etc
Ingredients: 4 ounces stale bread, very finely grated; rind of ½ fresh lemon, pared thin; ¼ ounce minced parsley; ¼ ounce minced thyme; pepper or cayenne, to taste; 1 unbeaten egg yolk; 2 ounces butter, in small bits

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Roast Veal, Turkey, Etc

Ingredients

4 ounces stale bread, very finely grated
rind of ½ fresh lemon, pared thin
¼ ounce minced parsley
¼ ounce minced thyme
pepper or cayenne, to taste
1 unbeaten egg yolk
2 ounces butter, in small bits

Directions

Mix the grated bread, lemon rind, parsley, thyme, and pepper or cayenne in a bowl.
Add the unbeaten egg yolk and butter bits.
Work the mixture smoothly together with your fingers.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 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

Stale bread: Provides the bulk and body of the forcemeat, soaking up the butter and egg.
Egg yolk: Binds the mixture together and adds richness through its fat and emulsifying lecithin.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture once worked through.

The step that matters

Working in the egg yolk and butter. The butter should be added in small bits and worked in gradually so the fat emulsifies with the yolk and crumbs. Adding it all at once or with a warm hand can split the mixture into greasy pockets instead of a smooth, cohesive paste.

Swap the thyme

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

Marjoramfits about as well
Thymethe original
Tarragonfits about as well
Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, lemon, parsley, pepper, egg, butter. 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.

More forcemeat recipes

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White Bread80 recipes

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Forcemeat for Roast Veal, Turkey, Etc