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Chicken Forcemeat

A mixture of ground chicken, flour, butter, egg, and stock seasoned with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the panada

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in the flour and add the chicken stock.

  3. Boil well and let the mixture cool slightly.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Cut up and pound the chicken meat in a mortar until smooth.

  2. Add the egg and the cooled mixture gradually.

  3. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Test the consistency; if too firm, add a little cream.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body and flavour of the forcemeat once pounded smooth.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a panada that gives the forcemeat body and stability.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the mixture stay soft and smooth.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firm when cooked.
Chicken stock
Provides moisture and loosens the panada to a smooth consistency.

The step that matters

Adding the cooled mixture gradually. If the panada is hot when added, it can scramble the egg and loosen the emulsion. Letting it cool slightly and adding it bit by bit keeps the forcemeat smooth and cohesive.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, butter, egg, pepper. 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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