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Farce for Quenelles of Fish

A creamy filling made from fish, panade, butter, and herbs used for fish quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Farce for Quenelles of Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish and crumb

  1. Pound the fillets of the whitings thoroughly and pass through a wire sieve.

  2. Soak the crumb of the French roll in milk or broth, then squeeze out the moisture.

  3. Pound the soaked crumb for 10 minutes and pass through the sieve.

Make the filling

  1. Weigh 6 ounces of panade, 10 ounces of fish flesh, and 6 ounces of butter.

  2. Pound the panade and fish flesh together for a few minutes, then add the butter and pound for 15 minutes.

  3. Season lightly with pepper, nutmeg, cayenne, and the egg yolks, then pound for a few more minutes.

  4. Add the fines herbes and white sauce, mix well, and place in a basin.

Finish

  1. To use, mix in the whipped egg white.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + fishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Whitings
Provide the lean fish flesh that forms the body of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness so the filling holds together when cooked.
Egg white
Whipped air lightens the filling, helping it stay tender and well risen.
Panade
Adds moisture and body, helping keep the fish filling tender and smooth.

The step that matters

Pound the butter into the panade and fish. Pounding long enough makes the mixture smooth and emulsified, so the filling stays light and does not turn grainy or greasy.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

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