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Forcemeat for Turkey

A mixture of bread crumbs, herbs, butter, and egg yolk used as stuffing for turkey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Forcemeat for Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate stale bread into fine crumbs.

  2. Mix in grated lemon rind, minced herbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Bind and finish

  1. Add butter in small bits and the egg yolk.

  2. Work the mixture with your fingers until smooth.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. 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

Stale bread
Forms the bulk of the stuffing and absorbs fat and moisture for a tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, keeping the forcemeat moist and soft once cooked.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder, helping the crumbs and fat hold together in a smooth mixture.
Mixed savory herbs
Contributes aroma and fresh flavour that brightens the rich bread and butter.

The step that matters

Adding the butter in small bits. Cold butter worked in gradually stays dispersed as small pieces, so the mixture stays smooth and the fat is spread evenly. Adding it all at once can leave greasy pockets and a crumbly, uneven texture.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, lemon, parsley, thyme, pepper, butter, egg. 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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