Name: Forcemeat, to Force Fowls or Meat
Ingredients: ¼ cup shredded ham or gammon; ¼ cup cold veal or fowl; ¼ cup beef suet; 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg or ground mace; ¼ teaspoon white pepper or cayenne; ½ cup bread crumbs; 1-2 eggs, beaten and strained

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 ↓

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, beef, onion, parsley, lemon, nutmeg):

Marjoramfits better
Thymefits better
Celeryfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, parsley, lemon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Forcemeat, to Force Fowls or Meat