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Veal Forcemeat

A mixture of finely ground veal, suet, bread crumbs, herbs, and egg, seasoned with pepper and salt.

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 ↓

Veal Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a mortar, pound the veal, suet, and bread crumbs together.

  2. Add the parsley, lemon peel, sweet herbs, onion, and mace or allspice; pound until well combined.

  3. Break in the egg and mix thoroughly.

  4. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

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

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and firm texture of the forcemeat.
Beef or veal suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and fat, helping the mixture hold together and stay light.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm and holds its shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Pounding the veal, suet, and bread crumbs together. Thorough pounding breaks the meat into a fine, even paste so the fat and crumbs distribute evenly. Poorly worked meat can turn coarse or crumbly when cooked.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, bread, parsley, lemon, onion, egg. 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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