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Force Meat Balls

A savory meatball made from veal, suet, ham, bread crumbs, egg yolks, and herbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Force Meat Balls

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 ↓

Force Meat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the veal, suet, and ham very fine.

  2. Mix in the bread crumbs and egg yolks.

  3. Season with parsley, thyme, mace, pepper, and salt.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Fry the balls until they are brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the meatballs.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and tender during frying.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together with a soft texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness to help the balls hold their shape.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and some firmness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until they are brown. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs steady heat and a dry surface. Crowding the pan or moving the balls too early can make them steam, leaving them pale and soft instead of well browned and flavorful.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, bread, egg, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, bread, egg, parsley, thyme, pepper. 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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