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Forcemeat

A seasoned meat paste made from liver, veal, bacon, onion, herbs, butter, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the liver, veal, and bacon into very small pieces.

  2. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat.

Cook

  1. Add the meat, onion, bouquet garni, salt, and pepper to the pan.

  2. Fry for 10 to 15 minutes until cooked through.

Finish

  1. Pound the mixture in a mortar and rub it through a wire sieve.

  2. Add the egg yolk, mix well, and season to taste.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Liver + vealtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Provides the main body and a soft, smooth texture once pounded and sieved.
Lean veal
Adds meaty substance and structure to the forcemeat.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour that keeps the forcemeat moist.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the meats cook gently in the pan.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture so it holds together and sets smoothly when cooked.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a wire sieve. Pounding and sieving breaks down the cooked fibres and fat into a fine, even paste. Skipping or rushing this leaves the forcemeat coarse and grainy rather than smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, veal, parsley, thyme, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, veal, parsley, thyme, 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.

More forcemeat recipes

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