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Forcemeat for Fish

A fried fish forcemeat formed into small balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Forcemeat for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove the meat from the bones of the fish and mince it finely.

  2. Add minced suet, grated bread, chopped oysters, and boiled parsley.

  3. Season with pounded onion, Jamaica pepper, cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, nutmeg, and lemon peel.

  4. Mix everything well and bind with the beaten egg yolks.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Fry the balls in fresh beef drippings until light brown.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish meat
Forms the main body of the meatballs and gives them their flavour.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture together so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and softens the texture of the mixture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the meatballs moist and tender.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in beef drippings until light brown. The balls are delicate and can break apart if handled roughly or fried over high heat. Frying at a moderate heat until light brown lets the outside set and brown gently while the centre cooks through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, oyster, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, lemon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, oyster, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, lemon. 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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