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Meat Stuffing

A savory mixture of veal, beef suet, eggs, water, pepper, salt, and herbs, optionally with shallots, mushrooms, truffles, or tongue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Meat Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the veal and suet until fine.

  2. Mix the pounded meats with pepper, salt, and fine herbs.

  3. Stir in one egg and mix well.

  4. Add another egg and ½ cup of water, mixing until combined.

  5. Test the flavor by poaching a teaspoonful.

  6. Optionally, mix in shallots, mushrooms, truffles, or bits of tongue for improved taste and appearance.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main lean meat body of the stuffing.
Beef kidney suet or fat
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and tender as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the meat mixture so it holds together when cooked.

The step that matters

Pounding the veal and suet until fine. Finely pounded meat blends into a smooth, evenly bound stuffing. Coarse pieces can leave a crumbly texture and uneven binding.

Swap the shallot

The recipe marks shallot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, egg, pepper, mushroom, truffle):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, egg, pepper, mushroom, truffle. 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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