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Forcemeat for Veal, Turkeys, Fowls, Hares, Etc.

A forcemeat mixture of veal, pork fat, breadcrumbs, herbs, and egg used as stuffing for veal, turkey, fowl, or hare.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Veal, Turkeys, Fowls, Hares, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Finely chop the veal and pork fat.

  2. Mix in the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, and egg, and combine all ingredients thoroughly.

  3. Use as a stuffing for veal, turkeys, fowls, or hares.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Pork + thymetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meat body and flavor of the forcemeat.
Pork fat
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the lean meat from drying out.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb juices and fat, giving the forcemeat a softer, lighter texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds together when stuffed and cooked.

The step that matters

Chop the veal and pork fat finely. Fine chopping spreads fat evenly through the lean meat, so the forcemeat stays moist and cooks to a uniform texture rather than a crumbly or greasy one.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, pepper, parsley, egg):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, pepper, parsley, 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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