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Fakce a LA Quenelle

A forcemeat of calf's udder, fowl and bread pulp, bound with egg, shaped into quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fakce a LA Quenelle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Stew soaked bread crumbs in veal broth for 5 minutes.

  2. Pound the mixture with parsley and mushrooms in a mortar.

  3. Rub the mixture through a tamis cloth.

  4. Add the egg yolks.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Pound boiled fowl meat.

  2. Rub the fowl meat through a tamis cloth.

  3. Combine the fowl pulp with boiled, pounded calf's udder and bread pulp.

  4. Pound the mixture for 15 minutes.

  5. Add the seasonings and béchamel.

  6. Chill the mixture in a basin set in ice.

Test and shape

  1. Take a walnut-sized piece.

  2. Boil the piece for 5 minutes.

  3. Cut the piece in half.

  4. Beat with egg white until frothy.

  5. Fill a silver spoon with the mixture.

  6. Shape the mixture with a knife.

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 + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mushroom + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,988 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's udder
Provides the bulk and body of the forcemeat's smooth, tender texture.
Fowl pulp
Supplies the main meat flavour and a light, delicate structure.
Bread pulp
Adds moisture and softness, helping keep the forcemeat light and tender.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it as it sets.
Egg white
Lightens the mixture and helps it hold its shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Chilling the mixture in ice before shaping. Forcemeat is a warm-sensitive emulsion. If it warms, the fat separates and the texture turns grainy or loose, so it must stay cold while it is worked and shaped.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, veal, parsley, mushroom, egg, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, veal, parsley, mushroom, egg, 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.