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Baked Murrel with Forcemeat

A baked murrel fish stuffed with turkey forcemeat, cooked with wine, stock, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Murrel with Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Clean and scale the murrel fish thoroughly.

  2. Stuff the fish with turkey forcemeat and sew it up.

  3. Shape the fish in a circular form with its tail in its mouth.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the fish in a pie dish and surround it with chicken stock.

  2. Add white wine, onion, and any spare vegetables to the stock.

  3. Baste the fish occasionally while baking.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes until soft.

  5. Top with a pat of maitre d’hotel butter before serving.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Turkey + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Murrel fish
Forms the main body of the dish and gives the flesh that cooks until soft.
Turkey forcemeat
Fills the fish with a moist, savoury stuffing that stays tender during baking.
Eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together when the fish is stuffed and shaped.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the forcemeat, keeping it from becoming dry.
Chicken stock
Surrounds the fish in the pie dish, keeping it moist and gently cooking it.

The step that matters

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes until soft. Baking gently and basting keeps the fish moist, since overcooking dries out the flesh and firms the proteins too much. Checking softness near the shorter end of the time helps prevent toughness.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, turkey, chicken, white wine, butter, bread, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, turkey, chicken, white wine, butter, bread, milk. 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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