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Farce De Merlan

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

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 ½ pound.

Make the panada

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, stir in the flour, and cook without browning.

  2. Dilute the mixture with the fish stock and stir over heat until thick.

Combine and finish

  1. Combine the chopped fish with the thick sauce in a mortar and pound well together.

  2. Gradually add the eggs and seasoning, then rub the mixture through a wire sieve.

  3. Return to the mortar and carefully work in the whipped cream or use Bechamel sauce instead.

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 and its delicate fish flavour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a sauce that gives the forcemeat body and stability.
Whole egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firm when cooked.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the forcemeat, giving a smoother texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and lightness, keeping the forcemeat tender.

The step that matters

Cook the flour in butter without browning. Cooking the roux gently removes its raw floury taste and gives a smooth, thickening base. Browning changes its colour and flavour and weakens its thickening power, affecting the delicate fish flavour.

“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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