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Murrel Stuffed with Turkey Forcemeat

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and chicken work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Murrel Stuffed with Turkey 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 trim 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 and serve in its dish.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

  5. White wine + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 becomes tender as it bakes.
Turkey forcemeat
Fills the fish, adding moisture and a richer, savoury body.
Chicken stock
Surrounds the fish in the dish, keeping it moist and forming the base for cooking.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid.
Maitre d'hotel butter
Adds fat and flavour when placed on the fish before serving.

The step that matters

Bake until soft, basting occasionally. Fish cooks quickly and dries out easily, so basting keeps the surface moist while the stock gently cooks it. Overbaking toughens the flesh and dries the forcemeat, so checking for softness at the shorter end of the time matters.

Swap the onion

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

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

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