Name: Forcemeat for Roasted Turkey or Veal
Ingredients: 2 oz breadcrumbs; 2 oz beef suet, finely minced; sweet marjoram (to taste); lemon thyme (to taste); parsley, finely chopped (to taste); coarse sea salt (to taste); black pepper (to taste); 1 egg, beaten

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Roasted Turkey or Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the forcemeat

In a bowl, combine breadcrumbs and minced beef suet.
Add sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper to the mixture.
Moisten with the beaten egg to bind the mixture into a mass.

Stuff and cook

Stuff the mixture into the turkey or veal before cooking.

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.

Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,979 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together957 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Breadcrumbs: Absorb fat and moisture to give the forcemeat body and a light, crumbly texture.
Beef suet: Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Egg: Binds the crumbs and suet together so the mixture holds as one mass.

“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.