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Pumpkin Flowers Stuffed with Forcemeat

A stew of pumpkin flowers stuffed with mutton and beef suet, rice, and herbs, simmered in broth and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pumpkin Flowers Stuffed with Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Wipe the pumpkin flowers and remove the pistils.

  2. Make a stuffing with the mutton, suet, rice, parsley, pepper, salt, and beaten eggs.

  3. Stuff the flowers with the forcemeat and close them carefully.

Braise

  1. Line the bottom of a flat stewpan with ham, bacon, and minced vegetables.

  2. Place the stuffed pumpkin flowers in the stewpan, cover with bacon, and add broth and tomato sauce.

  3. Boil gently until the liquid is reduced by half.

  4. Move the stewpan to the side and simmer until the vegetables are tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the pumpkin flowers and place them on a hot dish.

  2. Boil the remaining liquid, skim it, and drain it over the vegetables before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

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

  5. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin flowers
Act as the edible wrapper that holds the forcemeat while it cooks.
Lean mutton
Provides the savoury, meaty body of the forcemeat filling.
Beef kidney suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich as it cooks.
Rice
Bulks out the forcemeat and helps it hold a soft, sliceable texture.
Beaten eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it sets firm enough to hold its shape.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and body to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Boil gently until the liquid is reduced by half. A gentle boil lets the liquid reduce slowly while the flowers stay intact. Vigorous boiling can break the delicate flowers and cook the egg-bound filling unevenly.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, rice, parsley, pepper, egg, ham):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, rice, parsley, pepper, egg, ham. 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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