Name: Superior Suet Forcemeat, for Veal, Turkeys, &C.
Ingredients: 6 oz fine stale bread crumbs; 6 oz beef kidney suet, chopped extremely small; 1 large dessertspoon parsley, mixed with a little lemon-thyme; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon mace; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; 3 egg yolks, unbeaten; 3 teaspoons milk

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Superior Suet Forcemeat, for Veal, Turkeys, &C.

Ingredients

6 oz fine stale bread crumbs
6 oz beef kidney suet, chopped extremely small
1 large dessertspoon parsley, mixed with a little lemon-thyme
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon mace
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
3 egg yolks, unbeaten
3 teaspoons milk

Directions

Make the forcemeat

Mix the bread crumbs and chopped suet in a bowl.
Add parsley, lemon thyme, salt, cayenne, mace, and nutmeg; mix well.
Incorporate the egg yolks and milk until smooth.
Transfer the mixture to a mortar and pound until perfectly smooth.

Chill and shape

Let it cool in a cool place for at least 30 minutes.
Roll into balls if desired.

Cook and serve

Flour the balls and fry gently for 7 to 8 minutes, or poach for 6 to 7 minutes.
Dry them well before serving.

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine stale bread crumbs: Form the bulk of the mixture and absorb moisture from the suet and milk.
Beef kidney suet: Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and rich as it cooks.
Egg yolks: Bind the mixture together and help it set when cooked.
Milk: Loosens the mixture so it blends smooth and stays moist.

The step that matters

Pound until perfectly smooth. Thorough pounding breaks the suet and crumbs into a uniform paste, so the forcemeat binds evenly and cooks without crumbling or greasy pockets.

Swap the mace

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

Marjoramfits better
Winter savoryfits better
Sagefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, beef, parsley, lemon, thyme, pepper, 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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Superior Suet Forcemeat, for Veal, Turkeys, &C.