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Forcemeat in General

A mixture of minced fowl, panada, veal-udder, seasonings, and eggs, shaped into quenelles and cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Forcemeat in General

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Mince and pound the best parts of young fowls until the meat rubs through a sieve.

  2. Combine one part fowl, one part panada, and one part veal-udder in a bowl.

Season and bind

  1. Pound the mixture well and season with salt, white pepper, and mace.

  2. Add raw yolks to the mixture and beat until smooth.

  3. If the mixture is not firm enough, add more eggs one at a time.

Shape and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into quenelles and poach or bake them.

  2. Serve with clear gravy.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Veal + white peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,845 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Best parts of young fowls
Provides the main meat, whose fine texture becomes the body of the forcemeat.
Panada
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the forcemeat tender rather than dense.
Veal-udder
Adds smooth body and moisture so the mixture holds together and stays tender.
Raw yolks of eggs
Binds the mixture, helping it set firm and smooth when cooked.

The step that matters

Pounding and binding the mixture. Thorough pounding breaks down the meat fibres so the forcemeat becomes smooth and cohesive. Adding egg yolk gradually helps it bind; if it is too loose it may crumble or weep when poached or baked, so firmness should be checked before shaping.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, white pepper, egg. 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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