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Forcemeat Balls, Baked

Baked forcemeat balls made with panada, beef suet, parsley, lemon juice, egg yolks, and ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 Balls, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the forcemeat

  1. In a basin, combine the panada, chopped beef suet, chopped parsley, lemon juice, egg yolks, and chopped ham.

  2. Mix all ingredients well until combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Form the mixture into small balls.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

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

  3. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

  4. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Panada
Adds bulk and moisture and helps the mixture hold together.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the balls moist and tender as they cook.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and set when baked, giving the balls structure.
Chopped ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the balls.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich fat and meat flavours.

The step that matters

Bake until brown, without overbaking. Egg yolks set as they heat, so the balls need enough time to firm up. Baking too long drives off moisture and leaves them dry, while the surface browns through the Maillard reaction, so watch the colour as well as the clock.

“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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