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Tomato Forcemeat

A tomato-based forcemeat made with bread crumbs, butter, veal, ham, and egg, used to stuff poultry or rabbit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Tomato Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the forcemeat

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs and tomato pulp.

  2. Add the melted butter, chopped veal, and chopped ham.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and grated lemon rind.

  4. Mix in the beaten egg.

  5. Cover the mixture; let it sit for an hour before using.

Use

  1. Use the forcemeat to fill a rabbit, fowl, or other dishes.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body so it holds together.
Tomato pulp
Adds moisture, acidity and a fresh tomato flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Veal
Supplies meaty bulk and a mild, savoury flavour.
Ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour to the stuffing.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm enough to hold its shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Mix in the beaten egg. The egg is the binder that lets the forcemeat set when cooked. Adding it too early or mixing too vigorously can make the texture dense or rubbery, so fold it in gently and only until evenly combined.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, veal, ham, pepper, lemon, 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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