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Forcemeat, to Force Fowls or Meat

A mixture of cold fowl or veal, ham, bacon, suet, bread crumbs, herbs, spices, eggs, and lemon peel used as stuffing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Forcemeat, to Force Fowls or Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred a little ham, cold veal, or fowl, and beef suet.

  2. Add a small quantity of onion, parsley, a little lemon peel, salt, nutmeg, and either white pepper or cayenne.

  3. Mix in bread crumbs.

Bind and use

  1. Pound the mixture in a mortar.

  2. Bind with 1-2 beaten eggs.

  3. Use as stuffing for fowls or meat.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

  5. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds together when stuffed and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, giving the forcemeat a soft, light texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and tender as it cooks.
Cold fowl or veal
Supplies the meat base that gives the forcemeat its main flavour and structure.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture in a mortar. Pounding breaks the meat and suet into a fine, cohesive paste, so the forcemeat binds evenly and does not crumble or separate when cooked.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, beef, bread, parsley, nutmeg, egg. 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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