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Force-Meat Balls

A savory meatball made from shredded mutton, suet, herbs, and spices, then boiled or fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 ↓

Force-Meat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Pick off the skin and fat from the meat.

  2. Shred the meat and suet together very fine.

Make the mixture

  1. Add chopped parsley, grated nutmeg, powdered mace, shallots, marjoram, thyme, sage, lemon peel, egg yolks, and bread crumbs.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, and optional anchovy or oysters.

  3. Pound the mixture well in a marble mortar.

Shape and store

  1. Store in a jar covered with a little flour.

  2. Flour your hands.

  3. Roll the mixture into balls.

  4. Boil or fry the balls before using, depending on your intended purpose.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean mutton, veal, or beef
Provides the main lean meat that gives the balls their body and savory flavor.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and tender when cooked.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and help it hold its shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help keep the meatballs soft and tender.
Shallots
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture well in a marble mortar. Thorough pounding breaks the meat and suet into a fine, uniform paste so the binders distribute evenly. Poorly worked mixtures can crumble or cook unevenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, beef, parsley, nutmeg, shallot, marjoram, thyme):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, beef, parsley, nutmeg, shallot, marjoram, thyme. 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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