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Forcemeat for Savoury Pies

A mixture of veal, bacon, breadcrumbs, herbs, and lemon rind, seasoned and bound with egg, used as pie filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Forcemeat for Savoury Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the veal, bacon, breadcrumbs, parsley, herbs, and lemon rind together in a bowl.

  2. Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste.

  3. Add the egg to moisten the mixture; if too dry, add a little milk or water.

  4. Mix well and use as required.

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

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 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

Veal
Provides the main body and meaty structure of the filling.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor, keeping the filling moist as it cooks.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together.
Egg
Binds the mixture and adds moisture so it sets together when cooked.

The step that matters

Add the egg, then judge moisture before adding liquid. Breadcrumbs and meat absorb liquid unevenly, so a mixture that looks dry may firm up once combined. Too much milk or water makes the filling loose and soggy, so add liquid only if the mixture is still dry.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parsley, lemon, egg, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, lemon, egg, pepper. 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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