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Veal Forcemeat

A finely ground veal mixture with bread crumbs, gravy, egg yolk, and butter, used as a stuffing or filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal and crumbs

  1. Remove sinew from the veal and chop it finely.

  2. Pound the veal until it forms a fine paste.

  3. Soak the bread crumbs in the veal gravy or white sauce.

  4. Press and drain the soaked bread crumbs to remove moisture.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Heat the bread crumbs over low heat until dry and they form a ball on the spoon.

  2. Mix in the egg yolk while the mixture is still hot.

  3. Once cooled, combine with the veal and add the fresh butter.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body and fine paste that gives the forcemeat its structure.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, helping the mixture hold together.
Veal gravy or white sauce
Adds moisture and flavor to the crumbs before they are dried.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture and adds richness as it sets with the other ingredients.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Drying the bread crumbs until they form a ball. Removing moisture from the crumbs keeps the forcemeat firm and stops it from becoming loose or watery when combined with the veal and butter.

“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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