Name: Fish Forcemeat
Ingredients: any kind of fish, finely chopped; 2 anchovies or 1 teaspoon anchovy essence; 1 hard boiled egg yolk; 2 tablespoons butter; parsley or any other approved herb, chopped; 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; a little bread, soaked

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 ↓

Fish Forcemeat

Ingredients

any kind of fish, finely chopped
2 anchovies or 1 teaspoon anchovy essence
1 hard boiled egg yolk
2 tablespoons butter
parsley or any other approved herb, chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
a little bread, soaked

Directions

In a mortar, pound the chopped fish with anchovies or anchovy essence, egg yolk, butter, herbs, lemon peel, and lemon juice.
Add the soaked bread and mix everything into a paste.
Form the mixture into balls or use it for stuffing.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together637 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,260 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish: Forms the main body of the forcemeat, giving it its flavour and structure.
Egg yolk: Binds the mixture and helps it hold together as a paste.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture.
Bread: Absorbs moisture and lightens the texture of the paste.
Anchovies: Adds a salty, savoury depth of 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.