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Forcemeat Pie

A fish forcemeat pie made with whiting, panada, butter, and ham, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Forcemeat Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the forcemeat

  1. Pound the fish in a mortar and pass it through a fine sieve.

  2. Mix in the panada, butter, salt, mace, pepper, egg, and enough poulette sauce to form a pliant paste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a raised pie mold with pastry, fill with a layer of forcemeat, then a layer of salmon, and repeat until filled.

  2. Cover with puff pastry, brush with egg white, and bake at 300°F (150°C) until done.

Add the broth and essence

  1. Let cool for 30 minutes, then pour in the fish broth through a hole in the top.

  2. To make the essence, boil the ham, shallot, carrot, thyme, and Chablis until reduced, then add chicken broth and simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the essence and pour it into the pie along with the broth.

Finish and serve

  1. Let the pie cool completely, then turn it out of the mold and serve garnished with parsley.

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. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Fish + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Whiting + fishtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Whiting, pollack, or haddock
Forms the main body of the forcemeat, giving the filling its light, delicate texture.
Panada
Binds the forcemeat and helps keep it moist and tender when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Egg
Helps bind the forcemeat so it holds together when sliced.
Poulette sauce
Adds moisture so the fish mixture forms a pliant paste.
Lean raw ham
Contributes savoury flavour to the essence.

The step that matters

Baking the forcemeat pie. Baking at a moderate temperature and not too hot lets the fish-based forcemeat set gently. High heat can toughen the proteins and make the filling dry or rubbery.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, butter, pepper, egg, sauce, fish, ham):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, butter, pepper, egg, sauce, fish, ham. 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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