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Forcemeat Balls

A dish of seasoned veal and beef suet formed into balls, rolled in flour, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Forcemeat Balls

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a marble mortar, beat the veal and beef suet together.

  2. Add pepper, salt, cloves, lemon peel, nutmeg, parsley, sweet herbs, shallot, onion, and breadcrumbs.

  3. Mix in the yolk of egg to bind the mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls and roll them in flour.

  2. Fry the balls in hot oil until golden 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 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

Lean veal
Provides the main body of the meatballs, giving a tender, meaty texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and tender during frying.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and fat, helping the mixture hold together and stay tender.
Yolk of egg
Binds the mixture so the meatballs hold their shape.
Shallot and onion
Add savory flavor and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot oil until golden brown. The oil must be hot enough to brown the flour coating quickly. Browning creates flavor and a crisp surface, while slow frying in cool oil lets the meatballs absorb grease and cook unevenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, pepper, lemon, nutmeg, parsley, shallot):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, pepper, lemon, nutmeg, parsley, shallot. 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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