Forcemeat dishes, including pâtés, terrines, meatloaf and sausages, are emulsions of meat and fat. Success means a tasty forcemeat dish that doesn’t fall apart—and binders are responsible for keeping forcemeat dishes together. Today, let’s talk about what binders are, what they do and the types of binders you can choose from when it comes to making your next forcemeat dish.

This guide to forcemeat binders includes these sections:  

• What is forcemeat?
• What is an emulsion?
• What do binders do in forcemeat dishes?
• What is the primary binder in forcemeat dishes?
• What are secondary binders in forcemeat dishes?
• Why some recipes don’t call for secondary binders.
• Forcemeat binder option: Panade/panada (a.k.a. bread and milk).
• Forcemeat binder option: Flour.
• Forcemeat binder option: Eggs.
• Forcemeat binder option: Pâte à choux.
• Forcemeat binder option: Gelatin.
• Forcemeat binder option: Dry milk.
• Forcemeat binder option: Heavy cream.
• Forcemeat binders: Gluten-free options (oats, potatoes, rice, cornmeal, mushrooms, pork rinds).
• BONUS: The 5/4/3 sausage emulsion as a gluten-free binder.
• How to choose the right binder for your forcemeat dish.

I first came across the concept of a binder when trying to turn my favourite meatloaf recipe gluten-free. And again, when trying to turn that gluten-free recipe into a grain-free recipe. Understanding what binders are and how they work definitely makes cooking and substituting ingredients a lot easier. So let’s get started!

What is forcemeat?

According to Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen, Fourth Edition, by the Culinary Institute of America, forcemeat is, “A mixture of chopped or ground meat or seafood and other ingredients used for pâté, sausages, and other preparations.”

But to understand how forcemeat works, it’s helpful to know the concept of emulsion.

What is an emulsion?

An emulsion—also courtesy of the Garde Manger—is, “A mixture of two or more liquids, one of which is a fat or oil and the other of which is water-based, so that globules of one are suspended in the other. This may involve the use of stabilizers, such as egg or mustard. Emulsions may be temporary, permanent, or semipermanent.”

In the case of forcemeat, the emulsion is a fat-meat emulsion, rather than fat and liquid (the meat is the water-based ingredient here).

What do binders do in forcemeat dishes?

In forcemeat dishes, you take two ingredients that want to be separate—meat and fat—and turn them into the pleasing and solidified texture you get with a slice of pâté en terrine or a sausage off the barbeque.

But as the Garde Manger mentioned, emulsions aren’t always permanent. And sometimes emulsions break.

In forcemeat dishes, binders protect the emulsion by helping the meat and fat mixture stay together instead of breaking apart.

Binders also act as thickeners, though we tend to think of this application for sauces and dressings, rather than pâté en terrine, meatloaf and sausages.

Now let’s move into the two types of binders used in forcemeat dishes and explore specific examples to try at home.

What is the primary binder in forcemeat dishes?

The primary binder in forcemeat dishes is the meat protein myosin which is activated through mechanical means. When you grind the meat and fat together (and sometimes purée the mix to achieve a finer texture), it develops the protein myosin in the meat which acts as a natural binder and helps make a stable emulsion (that doesn’t break).

Many forcemeats rely on working the meat protein myosin (through grinding, mixing and/or puréeing) as the main binder.

In their excellent book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman reiterate their advice about the importance of working with cold equipment and ingredients. About the all-meat method, they say, “Temperature is especially important when there is no added binder … so be sure to keep all meats, fat, and equipment cold, cold, cold—but not frozen solid.”

However, the meat only method isn’t always sufficient, depending on the recipe, the type of forcemeat you’re making or any goof-ups with temperature that may befall you.

That’s where secondary binders come in.

What are secondary binders in forcemeat dishes?

Secondary binders are used to strengthen the emulsion you get through grinding, mixing and puréeing meats and fats together. If your meatloaf ends up looking like a brown brick swimming in a pool of fat, your recipe could probably use a binder or two. I know this from experience.

Secondary binders for forcemeat dishes include:

• Bread and milk (also called a panade/panada).
• Flour.
• Eggs.
• Gelatin.
• Powdered milk.
• Heavy cream (also known as whipping cream).
• Oats.
• Potatoes.
• Rice.
• Cornmeal.
• Mushrooms.
• Pork rinds.

Why some recipes don’t call for secondary binders

As I mentioned earlier, the primary binder is the meat protein myosin and when your mix is ground well and enough, this binder can hold your forcemeat dish together.

Wayne Gisslen, author of Professional Cooking, College Version, Seventh Edition, talks about binders in his chapter called, Pâtés, Terrines, and Other Cold Foods (which is chapter 27 and starts on page 874). He says, “Extra binders are not absolutely necessary in a forcemeat made purely of meat and fat because the meat proteins are sufficient to bind the product when cooked. On the other hand, when brandy, cream, and other liquids are added to the forcemeat, extra binders may be needed or at least beneficial.”

Now, let’s learn more about using each of these binders.

Forcemeat binder option: Panade/panada (a.k.a. bread and milk)

While we most often think of a panada as bread and milk, the Culinary Institute of America is more precise. In the Garde Manger, panada is defined as, “An appareil based on starch (such as flour or crumbs), moistened with a liquid; used as a binder.”

[An appareil, also defined in the Garde Manger, is “a prepared mixture of ingredients used alone or as an ingredient in another base preparation, such as duchesse potatoes or duxelle.” I had to look that up!]

According to the article, Forcemeats and their Binders, Fats, and Seasonings on The Culinary Cook website, “A panada is something other than fat that is added to a forcemeat to enhance smoothness, to aid emulsification or both. It should not make up more than 20% of the total weight. Usually, a panada is nothing more than a crustless white bread soaked in milk or a heavy bechamel.”

You can also use breadcrumbs to make your panada. However, according to Ben Gorges in his article, How to Make Freaking Great Meatballs, “Believe it or not, it is actually better to make meatballs without breadcrumbs. Rather than using breadcrumbs, slices of white bread are far superior. Soaked bread has all of the binding power of breadcrumbs, with none of the dryness. You will get a far more tender meatball when making a panade.” I haven’t tested this myself as I stay away from all types of bread, but the reviews of his meatball recipe are glowing so check it out next time you’ve got meatballs on the menu.

All that to say, a bread-and-liquid panada is probably the most common binder you’ll see in forcemeat dishes.

Forcemeat binder option: Flour

Flour is famously used to thicken soups and sauces (such as bechamel and gravy) but it’s also used in forcemeat dishes such as pâté. For example, in their book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman call for two tablespoons of flour in their Classic Pork and Liver Country Pâté recipe (which is their master country pâté recipe). This flour is mixed with the eggs, cream and brandy, then added to the ground meat mix.

As you can see from this recipe example, flour is used sparingly and one of several secondary binders.

This book by Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman is awesome, by the way, and I highly recommend buying it. Even if you’re gluten-free—they have many pâté/terrine recipes that don’t call for flour or bread.   

Forcemeat binder option: Eggs

Whole eggs and/or egg whites are used as binders in some forcemeat dishes. The Culinary Cook, in that same article mentioned above, says, “If used with forcemeats that have a high ratio of liver or liquids, they [eggs] also add texture.”

In mousseline forcemeats—which are made of white meat and cream—egg whites are one of the secondary binders used. Eggs are commonly used as a binder in meatloaf.

Some pâté recipes call for chopped up hard-boiled eggs which may be processed until smooth with a food processor or left chunky. I’m not sure if they serve as a binder once they’re hard boiled. If you know, let me know, please and thank you.

Forcemeat binder option: Pâte à choux

Another type of panade is called pâte à choux, which is a cooked mixture of milk, butter, flour, eggs, salt and pepper. After you cook it, you can refrigerate the pâte à choux for later use. When you use it in a terrine, make sure it’s at room temperature before you add it to the terrine mix. Follow your terrine recipe so you use the right amount of pâte à choux—if you use too much, your creation will be gummy. Not appetizing!

Forcemeat binder option: Gelatin

Because of its binding properties, gelatin is becoming a popular egg substitute for folks who can’t tolerate eggs. In forcemeat dishes, it’s also used as a binder, with or without eggs. Though it can be used as a binder, you’ll more frequently see gelatin used in an aspic layer on the top of pâtés and terrines.  

Gelatin comes in powder form and sheet form. To use gelatin powder, “bloom” the gelatin in a bowl with stock, water or milk for at least five minutes before adding it to the main mix. Blooming involves putting the liquid in your container, sprinkling the gelatin powder on top and waiting for it to gently gel. If you put the powder in first and add the liquid, you’re more likely to get lumps.

For gelatin sheets, bloom the sheet(s) in a cup of cold liquid that your recipe calls for (for example: stock, water or milk) and let it sit for five to 10 minutes before adding it to the main mix.

So far, I haven’t used gelatin in a pâté en terrine (or any forcemeat dish) except for the aspic. But I found a recipe that calls for gelatin in the pâté and it’s on my list of recipes to try. It’s the Chicken Liver Mousse Pâté with Port Gelée by The Daily Brine. It includes a generous amount of heavy cream and I’m a sucker for a mousse-like texture. Also whipping cream, ha ha.

Forcemeat binder option: Dry milk

Dry milk—also known as powdered milk—is common in sausage making. It’s used partially as a binder but mostly to help retain moisture in the sausage. On the English version of the Polish sausage making forum, Wedlinydomowe, folks advise against instant powdered milk.

User and moderator, Butterbean from South Georgia, says this in the thread about dried milk, “Its been my experience that most sausages calling for additives like this can be made without it if you do your process properly and mix well. I think these additives are helpful in fixing flaws in your technique more than anything. Maybe not in all cases but in many. I still use them in things like bologna because I need all the help I can get when it comes to emulsions.”

And according to the Butcher and Packer store, “Milk powder has been used for years in sausage making. Although not highly effective as a binder, it can impart a creamier taste to some sausage products. Milk powder is good at hiding salt flavor in most sausage and is used in liver sausage, hot dogs and bologna.”

You might find a pâté en terrine recipe that calls for dried milk powder, but I can’t recall seeing an example of this on my recipe inquiries. Though, to be fair, I haven’t been looking for this ingredient in recipes up until now.

Forcemeat binder option: Heavy cream

Heavy cream (and it’s slightly lower-fat cousin whipping cream) are thickening agents which, going by the Garde Manger definition, makes them binders. I’m not sure how strong heavy cream is as a binder.

In a liver pâté you make on the stovetop, heavy cream adds texture and likely makes the dish less thick (along with other liquids such as brandy or wine).

In many pâté en terrine recipes, the amount of heavy cream is quite small compared to the rest of the ingredients. However, in my favourite recipe called Chicken Liver Terrine (from guess which book?!), there are two cups of heavy cream, plus wine and a bunch of eggs.

In mousselines, heavy cream is the third main ingredient that combines with the meat and the egg whites.

While heavy cream may not be the strongest binder around, it’s definitely the creamiest and most delicious one. All the more reason to find a recipe that uses heavy cream, ha ha.  

Forcemeat binders: Gluten-free options (oats, potatoes, rice, cornmeal, mushrooms, pork rinds)

If you or your dinner guests are gluten free—and you don’t want to find a new food hobby or new friends—you’ll have to find ways around gluten binders for your forcemeat dishes.

Fortunately, there are many options at your disposal so let’s go over some of the big ones right now.

One caveat about these gluten-free binders: If you can avoid substitution, avoid it! I mean that there are a lot of pâté, pâté en terrine and sausage recipes out there that are naturally gluten-free. It’s probably easier to use one of these recipes rather than making a gluten recipe gluten-free. [For more on gluten-free terrines, check out my article, Is Terrine Gluten Free? Ingredients to Watch Out For.]

Oats as a gluten-free binder

Oats work really well as a binder in meatloaf, the humblest of all forcemeat dishes. You can use them whole or grind them in your spice grinder, if you want to disguise them. I’ve got many years of experience cooking my favourite meatloaf recipe using an approximate 1:1 substitution of the breadcrumbs for oats. [My favourite meatloaf recipe is Ruth Anne’s Meat Loaf from The Northern Exposure Cookbook: A Community Cookbook from the Heart of the Alaskan Riviera.]

Potatoes as a gluten-free binder

Potatoes work as a binder because they’re starchy. I’ve used potatoes to bind together Portuguese cod cakes and that might translate well into terrine, but I haven’t tried it. However, other people have. For example, in an online recipe called, Gluten-free Ham Hock and Potato Wedge Terrine, one kilo of “Aviko Mega Wedges” is used as a binder. The terrine looks like it might fall apart easily but that might not be true. And if it is true, it still might not be terrible.

I’d probably go for using cooked mashed potatoes so that the gluten-free binder can be an invisible part of the terrine. Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman suggest going easy on the potatoes as too much can leave your pâté with a gummy consistency. However, they don’t say how much is too much.

Rice as a gluten-free binder

Cooked rice works as a gluten-free binder. Like with the oats and potatoes, you can leave it whole or blend it up so it’s invisible. I’d for sure want to blend up the rice first for better aesthetics. You don’t want your meatloaf or terrine looking like it’s been overcome by little white worms. Ewwwww.

If you have a recipe that calls for flour, you can try substituting rice flour for the traditional flour. Since most terrine recipes only call for a couple of tablespoons of flour, substituting rice flour probably won’t lead to disaster. Though this is only a guess on my part.

Cornmeal as a gluten-free binder

I couldn’t find many references to cornmeal being a good gluten-free substitute, though I did find reference to using cornmeal in blood terrine.

So, I switched gears and researched the query from another angle; I looked up cornmeal meatloaf. It turns out there are folks who make meatloaf with cornmeal instead of breadcrumbs. For example, the Cornbread Meatloaf recipe on Food.com gets five stars from all the folks who rated it (only seven at the time I’m writing this, but still).

Reviewer, NicoleInGermanTown said, “Loved it!!!! Everyone in the family enjoyed it, which is rare here. I thought the texture was perfect. It was firm, for lack of a better word. Not mushy, like other meat loafs.”

Because information on using cornmeal in forcemeat dishes is sparse, I’d stick with testing out the cornmeal meatloaf recipe mentioned earlier, using some other binder substitute or finding a naturally gluten-free recipe when it comes to pâtés, terrines and sausages.

Mushrooms as a gluten-free binder

According to the Serious Eats article, The Food Lab: The Best Meatloaf, mushrooms are, “Just like breadcrumbs, they prevent the meat proteins from interlocking, increasing tenderness while simultaneously adding flavor … They’re so much like bread that I treat them exactly the same way—grind them in the food processor and add them to the raw mix, no parcooking necessary at all!”

Their meatloaf recipe still calls for bread so it caused me to doubt how well the chopped mushrooms would do for a binder. However, on the Delishably site, author John D Lee uses chopped mushrooms as a complete breadcrumb substitute in his recipe, The Most Delicious Gluten-Free Meatloaf Recipe. Reviews were good so give it a try if this appeals to you.

Pork rinds as a gluten-free binder

Can pork rinds replace breadcrumbs? Yes! You can use crushed pork rinds to create gluten-free crumbs for coating meat and use them for a breadcrumb substitute for meatloaf. Because the keto diet is so popular now, it’s easy to find keto meatball recipes that use pork rinds as a binder (typically an egg or two is also included).

Here are some recipes to get you started on using pork rinds as a breadcrumb substitute:

• How to Make Homemade Keto Seasoned Bread Crumbs by Ashley at Hip2Keto.
• The Best (& Juiciest!) Meatballs by Paola van der Hulst at Gnom Gnom.
• Nearly Carb Free Meatballs by Lisa at Low Carb Yum.
• Keto Meatloaf – Low Carb Comfort Food by Kat & Melinda at Home Made Interest.

I haven’t tried any of these recipes but I know the premise is solid so they should be good.

I made many failed attempts at pork rind substitutions for my Ruth Anne’s Meat Loaf (mentioned earlier) until the last time when it was PERFECT! I finally achieved the perfect meatloaf texture! Except for two things: the pork rinds I used were stale, so the meatloaf tasted bad (but perfect texture!!!) and I didn’t write down exactly what I did. The trials and tribulations of being an exploring home cook…

BONUS: The 5/4/3 sausage emulsion as a gluten-free binder

The 5/4/3 emulsion is the ratio of lean meat, fat and ice (or water) used for making sausages. This 5/4/3 emulsion ratio is by weight and is also used for making bologna and hot dogs.

To make the 5/4/3 emulsion, you grind the meat and fat in the meat grinder. Then the ground meat-fat mixture and crushed ice are mixed further in a food processor. You can also substitute the crushed ice for icy water or beer.

This tip is a little cheeky because with the 5/4/3 emulsion method, the binding is complete. No other binders are necessary. I wanted to say this explicitly because you don’t have to buy sausages with fillers. Real sausages don’t need binders or fillers. When meat companies add fillers to sausages, is it to make a better product for you? Or is it to cut down on production costs? Food for thought.

How to choose the right binder for your forcemeat dish

If you need to do a binder substitution for a forcemeat dish, the easiest thing to do is stop and find another recipe that doesn’t require a substitution. We’re not pro chefs here.

But if you MUST, then choose the least wild-card option first. Start with these dependable options: panada, flour, eggs and pâte à choux. The gluten-free dependable options are oats, potatoes and rice. The other binder options I’ve mentioned in this article are probably a little trickier to get right.

But the most important thing when thinking about binders for your forcemeat dishes is knowing that you can find great recipes that don’t have many of these binders. Start with those recipes if you’re trying to avoid certain ingredients like bread.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it! Forcemeat binders are essential to keep your pâtés, meatloaf and meatballs intact, but you may not need as many as you think. May the emulsions in your forcemeat dishes be strong and permanent! And may your meatballs be freaking awesome!