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Jerusalem Fish Balls

Jerusalem Fish Balls are fish meatballs simmered in a seasoned stock and served with a lemon‑tarragon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Jerusalem Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Remove the head, tail, and bones from a 4-lb white fish. Place the fish in a kettle with 1 quart cold water, add mashed garlic, bay leaf, onion, cloves, and mace. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour.

Make the fish balls

  1. While the stock simmers, finely chop the uncooked fish and place it in a bowl. Add 24 blanched almonds, chopped; add 1 mashed clove of garlic, 1 level teaspoon salt, 1 saltspoon white pepper, and 2 saltspoons ground mace. Mix well and form into balls the size of an English walnut.

  2. Strain the stock and pour it over fire in a sauce pan. When it reaches a boil, drop in the fish balls. Draw the pan to one side of the fire, cover, and cook gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the balls with a skimmer and set them in a cool place.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Beat three eggs until creamy. Stand the bowl over hot water and gradually add the boiling stock (about 24 pint). When the mixture is like jelly, remove, strain through a fine sieve, and cool quickly.

  2. At serving time, add the juice of 2 lemons and 1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar. Garnish with tiny hearts of lettuce, lemon quarters, and parsley. Roll the balls in sauce and pile them in a pyramid fashion in the center. Serve the remaining sauce in a sauce boat.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

329Calories
28 gProtein
20 gFat
10 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Salmon100g cooked208
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Tarragon1 tsp dried (0.5g)2
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Garlic + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,893 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the body of the balls, giving them their main substance once chopped and shaped.
Eggs
Beaten and thickened over hot water, they set the stock into a jelly-like sauce.
Almonds
Blanched and chopped, they add body and a mild richness to the fish mixture.
Lemons
Their juice adds acidity that brightens the sauce just before serving.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg and stock sauce. Eggs set only gently when heated slowly over hot water. Adding stock gradually and removing the bowl once the mixture is jelly-like prevents scrambling and keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, fish, almond, mace, egg, lemon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, fish, almond, mace, egg, lemon. 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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