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Forcemeat for Roast Veal, Turkey, Etc

A mixture of finely grated stale bread, lemon rind, herbs, pepper, egg yolk, and butter used as a stuffing for roast veal, turkey meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Roast Veal, Turkey, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the grated bread, lemon rind, parsley, thyme, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Add the egg yolk and butter, then work the mixture smoothly with your fingers.

  3. Adjust seasoning and herbs 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Provides the body of the stuffing, absorbing the butter and egg to form a cohesive mass.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the forcemeat a moist, tender texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the crumbs and fat together into a smooth, cohesive mixture.

The step that matters

Working the butter and yolk into the crumbs. Butter must be worked in cold, in small bits, so it disperses evenly without melting. Even distribution keeps the forcemeat smooth and prevents greasy pockets.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Thymethe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Sagefits about as well

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