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Ham Force-meat

A ham-based stuffing made with milk, bread crumbs, egg yolks, parsley, mustard, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Ham Force-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stuffing

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Add the bread crumbs and stir until it thickens.

  3. Remove from heat and add the egg yolks.

  4. Mix in the ham, parsley, salt, mustard, and cayenne.

  5. Set aside to cool.

Serve

  1. Use as stuffing for meats or poultry, especially veal.

  2. Alternatively, form into balls, roll in egg and bread crumbs, and fry like croquettes.

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

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the bread crumbs thicken into a soft panada.
Stale bread crumbs
Thicken the milk and bind the mixture into a spreadable, stuffing-like body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and, when gently heated, help set the mixture so it holds together.
Cold boiled ham
Provides the main savory flavor and meaty texture of the stuffing.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks scramble and curdle if they meet a hot, boiling mixture. Removing the pan from heat first lets the yolks blend in smoothly and thicken gently.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, milk, bread, egg, parsley, 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.

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