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Forcemeat

A finely ground mixture of veal, beef suet, spices, and herbs, chilled and baked into small balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the veal and beef suet very fine.

  2. In a mortar, season with nutmeg, pepper, salt, chives, and parsley.

  3. Pound until mixed into a smooth, compact body.

Chill and pound

  1. Transfer to a plate and set on ice for 1 hour.

  2. Pound again with clean ice until creamy.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll on a floured surface and divide into small pieces.

  2. Form into round balls and place on a baking sheet.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 minutes.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Chive + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + chivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together300 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the lean protein that sets into a firm, tender body when cooked.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the mixture moist and juicy as it cooks.
Clean ice
Keeps the mixture cold so the fat stays solid and the texture becomes creamy rather than greasy.

The step that matters

Pound again with clean ice until creamy. The fat must stay cold so it stays in small solid particles. If it warms and melts, it coats the meat and the forcemeat turns greasy and loose instead of smooth and light after baking.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, pepper, chive, parsley, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, pepper, chive, parsley, flour. 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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