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Farce De Merlan

A forcemeat made from whiting, flour, eggs, butter, fish stock, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Farce De Merlan

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the skin and bones from the whiting and chop the meat until it weighs half a pound.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Cook the mixture without browning.

  4. Dilute the mixture with the fish stock.

  5. Stir the mixture over heat until it thickens.

Combine and finish

  1. Combine the chopped fish with the thick sauce in a mortar.

  2. Pound the mixture well together.

  3. Gradually add the eggs and seasoning.

  4. Rub the mixture through a wire sieve.

  5. Return the mixture to the mortar.

  6. Carefully work in the whipped cream.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Whiting + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Meat + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together479 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 meat
Provides the main body of the forcemeat, which sets into a delicate, tender mass.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a sauce that gives the forcemeat body and stability.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when gently cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce base.
Cream
Adds moisture and lightness, keeping the cooked forcemeat tender.

The step that matters

Carefully work in the whipped cream. Whipped cream holds air that lightens the forcemeat. Overworking or vigorous mixing knocks the air out and makes the texture dense and heavy.

“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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