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Liver Forcemeat

A forcemeat made from veal, calf’s liver, bacon or ham, eggs, butter, herbs, and seasoning.

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 ↓

Liver Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Boil the liver, bacon, and veal mixed with onion for 15 minutes.

  2. Pound the mixture.

  3. Rub it through a sieve.

Finish the mixture

  1. Add the herbs, truffles, butter, and seasoning.

  2. Blend in the well-beaten eggs.

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. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  3. Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Ham + truffletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together516 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's liver
Gives the forcemeat its main flavour and a smooth, rich body when pounded and sieved.
Veal
Adds lean meat that gives the forcemeat body and a mild, savoury base.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
Bacon or ham
Adds fat and savoury, salty flavour that enriches the forcemeat.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky texture.

The step that matters

Rub it through a sieve. Pushing the cooked meat through a fine sieve breaks down fibres and removes stringy pieces, giving a smooth, even texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the forcemeat coarse and lumpy.

“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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