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Forcemeat for Turkeys

A forcemeat mixture of veal, pork, sweetbread, bread, butter, spices, lemon rind, and eggs for stuffing turkeys.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Turkeys

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Finely mince equal quantities of lean veal and pork.

  2. Cut parboiled veal sweetbread into pieces and mix with the minced meats.

  3. Add soaked bread and warm butter to the mixture.

  4. Flavor with nutmeg, salt, pepper, and grated lemon rind.

Bind and fill

  1. Bind the mixture with beaten eggs and fill the turkey.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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 meaty body and firm structure to the forcemeat.
Pork
Adds fat and richness, keeping the forcemeat moist as it cooks.
Parboiled veal sweetbread
Contributes a soft, tender texture that gives the forcemeat a delicate bite.
Bread, soaked
Absorbs moisture and keeps the forcemeat light and tender rather than dense.
Warm butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, moist texture.
Beaten eggs
Bind the mixture together, setting when cooked to hold its shape.

The step that matters

Bind the mixture with beaten eggs. Eggs set when heated and hold the forcemeat together. Adding them too early or in excess can make the mixture tough or loose, so mix gently until just combined and bound.

“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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