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Fillets of Beef with Forcemeat

A stuffed beef fillet filled with forcemeat and mushrooms, boiled in broth and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fillets of Beef with Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Mix fowls' livers, grated bacon, butter, parsley, shallots, egg yolks, and spices to make forcemeat.

Assemble the meat

  1. Cut the fillet of beef in half and flatten each half with a cleaver.

  2. Lard the flattened beef pieces and place the forcemeat and stewed mushrooms between them.

Cook

  1. Tie the wrapped meat in a cloth and boil it in broth, white wine, and sweet herbs.

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. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowls' livers
Give the forcemeat a soft, rich texture and savory depth.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together when cooked.
Grated bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor to the forcemeat, keeping it moist.
Fillet of beef
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked tender by gentle boiling.
Small mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Tie the wrapped meat in a cloth and boil it in broth, white wine, and sweet herbs.. The wrapping must be snug so the forcemeat stays inside the beef. Keep the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil, because vigorous boiling toughens meat and can break the forcemeat apart.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, butter, shallot, egg, beef, mushroom, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, butter, shallot, egg, beef, mushroom, white wine. 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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