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Forcemeat for Cold Savoury Pies

A seasoned mixture of veal, bacon, spices, and eggs used as filling for cold savory pies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Cold Savoury Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the veal and bacon together.

  2. Place them in a mortar with the other ingredients.

  3. Pound well and bind with 1 or 2 beaten and strained eggs.

  4. Work the mixture together until well combined.

Notes

  1. If not using immediately, omit the herbs and parsley to improve preservation.

  2. Optionally, add mushrooms or truffles.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the filling, giving it its substance and chew.
Fat bacon
Adds fat and moisture, keeping the cold filling tender and rich.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when cold.

The step that matters

Pound well and bind with eggs. Thorough pounding breaks the meat into a fine, evenly textured paste, and the egg binds it. Under-working leaves a crumbly filling that falls apart when sliced cold.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, parsley, 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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