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Forcemeat, to Force Fowls or Meat

A forcemeat mixture of ham, veal or fowl, suet, onion, parsley, spices, breadcrumbs, and eggs for stuffing fowls or meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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, to Force Fowls or Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine shredded ham, cold veal or fowl, beef suet, onion, and parsley in a bowl.

  2. Add grated lemon peel, salt, nutmeg, and white pepper or cayenne.

  3. Mix in the bread crumbs until well combined.

  4. Bind the mixture with 1 to 2 beaten eggs.

  5. Ensure the mixture is well mixed.

Stuff

  1. Use the forcemeat to stuff fowls or meat 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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture together so it holds its shape when stuffed and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and fat, giving the forcemeat body and a light, tender texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat, which keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Cold veal or fowl
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Binding with the beaten eggs. Eggs set when heated and hold the crumbs and meat together. Adding too many eggs or mixing unevenly can make the forcemeat wet or uneven, so add them gradually and mix until evenly combined.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, 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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