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Forcemeat for Stuffing Boned Fowls

A forcemeat mixture used to stuff boned fowls before cooking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Stuffing Boned Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stuffing

  1. Chop the meat finely and combine it with the bread or cracker crumbs.

  2. If desired, add chopped boiled ham or tongue and lardoons of pork.

  3. Season the mixture with parsley, onion juice, pepper, thyme, and salt.

  4. Moisten the mixture with stock until it reaches a suitable consistency.

Stuff and truss the fowl

  1. Stuff the prepared fowl with the mixture, placing some in the neck and the rest in the body.

  2. Sew up the opening securely.

  3. Truss the fowl by pressing the wings against the body and folding the pinions under.

  4. Press the legs close to the body and tuck them under the skin.

  5. Use a double thread to secure the wings and legs, tying knots on the same side.

  6. When cooked, cut the cord on the opposite side to easily remove it.

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. Parsley + peppertop 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. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat of another fowl, or veal, or pork
Forms the body of the stuffing and gives it savoury richness and substance.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorbs stock and moisture, giving the stuffing a light, binding texture.
Stock
Moistens the mixture so it holds together and stays tender while cooking.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with stock. Crumbs absorb liquid unevenly, so too little stock leaves the stuffing dry and crumbly, while too much makes it soggy and dense. Adding stock gradually until the mixture just holds together gives an even texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, ham, pork, parsley, pepper, thyme):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, ham, pork, parsley, pepper, thyme. 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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