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Suet Forcemeat

A mixture of suet, breadcrumbs, herbs, and egg used as a filling for pies.

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 ↓

Suet Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

  2. Add the egg and enough milk to slightly moisten the mixture.

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

  4. Use as desired.

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

Suet
Melts into the mixture as fat, adding richness and keeping the forcemeat moist.
Breadcrumbs
Provide bulk and absorb moisture, giving the forcemeat its body and crumbly texture.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together so the mixture holds its shape.
Lemon rind
Adds a bright aroma from its oils without adding much liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Breadcrumbs absorb liquid gradually. Add milk only until the mixture is slightly moist and holds together; too much makes it soggy and loose, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, lemon, egg, milk, 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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