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Chicken Forcemeat

A seasoned chicken mixture made with stock, flour, butter, egg, and optional cream, then sieved for smoothness.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the panada

  1. Boil the chicken stock and butter together.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Cook for 6 minutes, stirring constantly until smooth.

  4. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

Make the farce

  1. Remove skin and sinews from the chicken.

  2. Cut the chicken into small pieces.

  3. Pound the chicken pieces until smooth.

  4. Gradually add the cooled mixture to the chicken, along with the egg and cream if desired. Mix thoroughly.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  6. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to ensure a smooth consistency.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken meat
Provides the protein that sets into the body of the farce when cooked.
Flour
Cooked with stock and butter to form a thickened panada that adds body and keeps the farce moist.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother texture in the finished farce.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds together and sets firmly when cooked.
Chicken stock
Liquid that cooks with the butter and flour to make the panada.

The step that matters

Pound the chicken until smooth, then pass through a fine sieve. Chicken proteins must be finely broken down and the mixture well emulsified for a smooth, cohesive farce. Leftover sinew or lumps create a grainy, uneven texture, so sieving removes what pounding misses.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, flour, butter, egg, pepper, cream):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, flour, butter, egg, pepper, cream. 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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