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Forcemeat

A mixture of ham, veal or fowl, beef suet, onion, parsley, lemon peel, spices, bread crumbs, and eggs, used to stuff fowls or meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Shred the ham or gammon, veal or fowl, and beef suet.

  2. Finely chop the onion, parsley, and lemon peel.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

  2. Pound the mixture in a mortar until smooth.

  3. Bind the forcemeat with 1 or 2 beaten eggs.

Use

  1. Use the mixture to stuff fowls or meat.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it hold its shape when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body and a light, tender texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat, which keeps the forcemeat moist and rich as it cooks.
Cold veal or fowl
Provides the main meat base and savoury flavour of the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture in a mortar until smooth. Thorough pounding breaks the meat and fat into a fine, even paste, so the forcemeat binds evenly and cooks with a smooth, uniform texture rather than a coarse, crumbly one.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, beef, onion, parsley, lemon, nutmeg):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, parsley, lemon, nutmeg. 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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