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Forcemeat for Stuffing Boned Fowls

A seasoned forcemeat of chopped meat, bread or cracker crumbs, butter and herbs, moistened with stock, used to stuff boned fowl.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Stuffing Boned Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the meat finely.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a bowl, combine the meat, bread or cracker crumbs, melted butter, parsley, onions, sage, thyme, pepper, salt, and celery.

  2. Moisten the mixture with stock or leftover gravy until it reaches a suitable consistency for stuffing.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat (fowl or veal)
Forms the bulk of the stuffing and gives it a savory, meaty body.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the stuffing a soft, cohesive structure.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the stuffing.
Celery
Adds moisture and a mild, fresh crunch that lightens the mixture.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture. Crumbs need enough liquid to bind with the meat and fat, but too much makes the stuffing soggy and dense. Add stock or gravy gradually until the mixture holds together without being wet.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, butter, parsley, sage, thyme, pepper. 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.