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Forcemeat for Fish

Small balls of fish forcemeat fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lobster and anchovy work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 470 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the flesh of the lobster and mix it with the anchovy, boiled celery, hard-boiled egg yolk, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, butter, and raw eggs to the mixture and combine well.

  3. Form the mixture into small balls.

Fry

  1. Fry the balls in butter until they are a pale brown.

  2. If desired, add 2 or 3 oysters to the mixture before frying.

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.

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. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Anchovy + oystertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Lobster
Provides the main body and delicate seafood flavour of the meatballs.
Raw eggs
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the balls a softer, more cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and, when frying, promotes browning on the outside.
Hard-boiled egg yolk
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in butter until they are a pale brown. Frying over moderate heat browns the surface through the Maillard reaction while the egg-bound interior cooks through. Overheating scorches the butter and the outside before the centre is set.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lobster, anchovy, egg, pepper, bread, butter, oyster):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lobster, anchovy, egg, pepper, bread, butter, oyster. 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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