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Forcemeat Balls

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Forcemeat Balls

Why it works: Parsley and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the fish, liver, and roe finely with chopped parsley.

  2. Mix in warm butter, bread crumbs, and seasoning.

  3. Form the mixture into a paste with eggs and shape into moderate-sized balls.

  4. Add saffron to the stewpan and stir until thickened.

  5. Drop the balls into the stewpan about 20 minutes before serving.

  6. Garnish with sliced lemon and parsley.

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 + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, liver, roe, parsley, butter, bread, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, liver, roe, parsley, butter, bread, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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