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Forced Meats

A mixture of minced veal and dry beef suet formed into balls, seasoned and poached.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Forced Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal and suet

  1. Skin the veal and remove its nerves.

  2. Mince the veal finely.

  3. Beat the minced veal in a mortar until it becomes a paste.

  4. Mince the dry beef suet.

  5. Add the minced suet to the veal paste.

Bind the mixture

  1. Mix in salt, pepper, and fine spicery.

  2. Beat the mixture well together.

  3. Add the first egg. Mix thoroughly.

  4. Add the second egg.

  5. Add the third egg.

  6. Incorporate 1 tablespoon of water gradually. Ensure the mixture is not too wet.

Shape and poach

  1. Dust a table with flour.

  2. Form a small ball for testing in boiling soup. Check if the ball is firm enough.

  3. Roll the mixture into the desired size.

  4. Poach the balls. Drain the balls.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the meatballs, giving a firm, tender bite when cooked.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and tender during poaching.
Eggs
Bind the minced meat together and help the balls hold their shape.

The step that matters

Checking the test ball in boiling soup. Beaten meat paste with eggs can turn rubbery or fall apart if overworked or too wet. A small test ball poached first shows whether the mixture holds together and is firm enough before shaping the rest.

“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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