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Forcemeat Balls for Ragouts, &C

Forcemeat balls made from veal, beef suet, herbs, shallots, bread crumbs, and egg yolks, boiled or fried before adding to ragouts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Forcemeat Balls for Ragouts, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine veal, beef suet, parsley, thyme, marjoram, savory, shallots, pepper, salt, bread crumbs, nutmeg, and egg yolks.

  2. Pound the mixture well until combined.

Shape and cook

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Boil or fry the balls before adding them to any dish.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat body and firm, savoury bulk for the balls.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture into a soft, cohesive texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together and add richness to hold the balls' shape.

The step that matters

Boil or fry the balls before adding them to any dish. The balls contain raw egg yolks and raw meat, so they must be fully cooked before use. Cooking sets the egg proteins and firms the meat, making the balls safe and holding their shape.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, pepper, bread):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, parsley, thyme, marjoram, pepper, bread. 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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