Forcemeat Balls

A workmanlike Victorian forcemeat: pounded meat and suet bound with egg and crumbs, rolled small and fried to garnish soups, hashes and boiled fowl. The first receipt is complete and works as written once the seasonings are read in modern quantities.

• The hinge: keep it coldSuet and lean meat pounded together will separate and leak fat if they warm up. Work with chilled meat and suet, and refrigerate the mixture before rolling if it feels greasy on the hands.
• Mortar means food processorLong pounding by hand is replaced by short pulses in a processor, or by asking a butcher to mince the veal or pork twice. Stop while the mixture still has some texture; overworked forcemeat turns pasty.
• SuetBeef suet is sold shredded and packaged, or fresh from a butcher. Both are much drier than the fat in modern minced meat; if you substitute pork fatback or fatty pork belly, use a little less, as it renders more freely.
• Three eggs is generousWith one pound of solids, three whole eggs will give a loose mixture that spreads in the pan. Start with one egg plus enough grated bread to make a mixture that holds a shape, and add more only if it will not bind.
• Grated breadStale white bread grated on a box grater, not dried commercial crumbs, which absorb far more liquid. Roughly a cup, loosely packed, for a pound of meat and suet.
• Whole spiceTwo cloves and a blade of mace should be ground to powder before they go in, or picked out later. A whole clove in a small ball is unpleasant to bite. A blade of mace is roughly a quarter teaspoon ground, though blades vary a good deal in size.
• Lemon-peelThe zest only, grated fine; the white pith is bitter. One lemon is ample.
• FryingShallow-fry in a little dripping or oil over medium heat, turning, about 5-6 minutes for balls the size of a walnut. Cut one open to check the pork or veal is cooked through rather than relying on the colour of the outside.
• YieldAbout 20 to 24 small balls, enough to garnish a large dish or a tureen of soup for six to eight.