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Forcemeat Balls

Chicken forcemeat balls poached in broth with mushrooms, onion, and béchamel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Forcemeat Balls

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Forcemeat Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Draw tendons from the legs before dressing.

  2. Mix cream, béchamel sauce, salt, pepper, and egg white.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Grease cutlet molds with butter.

  5. Sprinkle the molds with parsley.

  6. Fit each mold with a thin slice of chicken breast.

  7. Cover the slice with the pounded chicken mixture.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter with onion in a pan.

  2. Drain the onion.

  3. Add ¼ cup butter to the pan.

  4. Add flour to the melted butter.

  5. Cook until frothy.

  6. Stir in chicken broth, salt, and pepper.

  7. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  8. Add mushrooms and chicken cubes.

  9. Let the mixture stand over hot water for 15–20 minutes.

Poach

  1. Set the molds on a trivet in a pan.

  2. Pour boiling water around the molds.

  3. Poach for 15–20 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg white
Binds the chicken mixture so it holds its shape when poached.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the forcemeat tender rather than dry.
Thick béchamel sauce
Adds body and moisture to the forcemeat, helping it stay soft and smooth.
Flour
Thickens the butter and broth into a smooth sauce when cooked together.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savory flavor.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Pass the mixture through a sieve. Sieving breaks up fibers and lumps so the forcemeat becomes smooth and fine-textured, which helps it set evenly and feel tender instead of grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sauce, pepper, egg, butter, parsley, chicken):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sauce, pepper, egg, butter, parsley, chicken. 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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