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Forcemeat Bails, or Quenelles, for Soups

A forcemeat mixture of bread, ham or tongue, suet, herbs, spices, and eggs, formed into balls or ovals and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram 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 ↓

Forcemeat Bails, or Quenelles, for Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the bread, ham or tongue, suet, thyme, marjoram, savory, parsley, lemon peel, nutmeg, mace, white pepper, and cayenne in a bowl.

  2. Mix the ingredients well and form them into small balls or ovals using the beaten eggs to bind them.

Fry and store

  1. Heat butter or oil in a pan and fry the balls until they are a clear, pale brown.

  2. Drain and dry the balls, then store them in a dry place; they will keep for two to three days.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the bulk of the balls and absorbs moisture, giving them body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the balls moist and tender as they cook.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Ham or tongue
Contributes savory meaty flavor to the balls.

The step that matters

Frying until pale brown. Frying in fat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, adding flavor. Pale brown is the target; over-browning can make the outside bitter and dry while the centre stays underdone.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, ham, thyme, marjoram, parsley, lemon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, ham, thyme, marjoram, parsley, lemon, nutmeg. 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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