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Forcemeat-Balls in Soup

A soup of boiled shallot-based forcemeat balls simmered in beef broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Forcemeat-Balls in Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meatballs

  1. Boil the shallots until tender, then cool and mince them.

  2. In a mortar, combine minced shallots with egg yolks and form small balls.

  3. Dust the balls with flour.

Cook in the broth

  1. Skim fat from the broth and heat it in a clean saucepan until boiling.

  2. Carefully add the balls to the boiling broth and poach for 10 to 12 minutes.

  3. Season the broth with salt and cayenne to taste.

  4. Optionally, add a thickening of rice flour or arrowroot to the broth.

  5. For added flavor, brown shallots in butter and add to the soup.

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. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Shallot + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together284 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the minced shallot mixture so the balls hold their shape while poaching.
Shallots
Provide the main flavor and bulk of the meatball filling.
Beef broth or stock
Forms the body of the soup and carries the flavor of the dish.

The step that matters

Poaching the balls in boiling broth. Adding the balls to a gently boiling broth helps them set firm and hold their shape; careless handling can break them apart.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, beef, pepper, butter, rice, bread):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, beef, pepper, butter, rice, bread. 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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