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Veal Forcemeat

A finely ground veal mixture with bread, gravy, egg yolk, and butter, used as stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Remove sinew from the veal.

  2. Chop the veal finely.

  3. Pound the veal until it forms a fine paste.

Make the panada

  1. Soak the bread crumb in the veal gravy or white sauce.

  2. Press the soaked bread to remove moisture.

  3. Drain the bread.

  4. Heat the bread mixture over low heat until dry and it forms a ball.

  5. Stir in the egg yolk while the mixture is still hot.

Finish the forcemeat

  1. Once cooled, mix in the veal.

  2. Mix in the fresh butter.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Finely-grained white veal
Forms the main body of the forcemeat, giving it a smooth, tender texture when pounded.
Stale bread crumb
Absorbs liquid and, with the gravy, gives the forcemeat body and a light structure.
Rich veal gravy or white sauce
Moistens the bread and adds flavor and moisture to keep the forcemeat from drying out.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture and helps it set into a cohesive, smooth texture as it cools.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the finished forcemeat.

The step that matters

Heating the bread mixture until it forms a ball. Cooking the panada drives off excess moisture so the forcemeat stays firm rather than watery. Stirring in the yolk while hot can thicken it gently, but overheating may scramble the egg and break the texture.

“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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