Name: Soyer's Recipe for Force Meats
Ingredients: 1½ lbs lean veal, cut into long thin slices; 1 lb good fresh beef suet, skinned and finely chopped; 6 oz panada (bread soaked in milk and boiled until nearly dry); 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; 4 eggs

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Soyer's Recipe for Force Meats

Ingredients

1½ lbs lean veal, cut into long thin slices
1 lb good fresh beef suet, skinned and finely chopped
6 oz panada (bread soaked in milk and boiled until nearly dry)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon nutmeg
4 eggs

Directions

Scrape the veal with a knife until only the fiber remains.
Pound the veal in a mortar for ten minutes until it becomes a puree.
Pass the veal through a wire sieve.
Pound the chopped suet in a mortar until fine.
Add the panada to the suet and pound them together.
Incorporate the veal into the mixture and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Work the mixture well and gradually add the eggs while continually pounding.
To test, poach a small piece in boiling water; it should be delicate, firm, and flavorful.

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.

Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, bread, milk, pepper, egg):

Nutmegthe original
Parsleyfits about as well
Marjoramfits about as well
Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, bread, milk, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.