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Soyer's Recipe for Force Meats

A forcemeat made from veal, beef suet, panada, eggs, and seasonings, pounded into a smooth mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Soyer's Recipe for Force Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Scrape the veal with a knife until only the fiber remains.

  2. Pound the veal in a mortar for 10 minutes until it becomes a puree.

  3. Pass the veal through a fine sieve and set aside the remainder for stock.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Pound the chopped suet in a mortar until fine.

  2. Add the panada to the suet and pound them together well.

  3. Incorporate the veal into the mixture and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Work the mixture well and gradually add the eggs while continually pounding.

  5. To test, poach a small piece in boiling water; if it is delicate, firm, and flavorful, it is ready for use.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main lean body of the forcemeat, giving it a smooth, finely textured base.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and tender once cooked.
Panada
Bread soaked in milk gives body and helps hold the mixture together with moisture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when poached or cooked.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs gradually while pounding. Eggs added all at once can break the emulsion of fat and meat, leaving the forcemeat loose or curdled. Adding them slowly while working the mixture lets the proteins bind everything evenly, so the final texture is smooth and firm.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, bread, milk, pepper, egg):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, bread, milk, pepper, 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.

More forcemeat recipes

Balls 27Fish 25Veal 24Chestnut 18Hare 17Suet 13 See all 56 →

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