FORCE′MEAT

Syn. Farce , Stuffing . A species of sausage meat, either served up alone, or employed as an ingredient in other dishes. Mrs Rundell truly remarks that “at many tables, where everything else is done well, it is common to find very bad forcemeat or stuffing.” To avoid this error, care should be taken to so proportion the ingredients that “no one flavour should predominate; yet if several dishes be served the same day, there should be a marked variety in the tastes of the forcemeats as well as of the gravies. A general fault is, that the tastes of lemon peel and thyme overcome all others; therefore they should only be used in small quantities.” Forcemeats should be just consistent enough to cut with a knife, but not dry and heavy. Herbs are very e ential ingredients; and it is the copious and judicious use of them that chiefly gives the cookery of the French its superior flavour. “To force fowls, meat, ., is to stuff them.” (Mrs Rundell.)