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Fish Force-meat

A fish forcemeat made with fish, butter, breadcrumbs, eggs, shallot, lemon peel, parsley, salt, cayenne, and egg yolk and white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley 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 Force-meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the forcemeat

  1. Pound the fish, butter, bread crumbs, hard-boiled egg yolks, shallot, lemon peel, and parsley until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. Beat the egg yolk and white together to bind the mixture.

Use the forcemeat

  1. Use the mixture to stuff a fish, form into balls and fry as a garnish, or shape into patties.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish (in the method)
Provides the main body of the forcemeat once pounded smooth.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the mixture moist and tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body and a lighter texture.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a smooth, fine texture to the mixture.
Egg
Beaten yolk and white bind the mixture so it holds its shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Beating the egg to bind the mixture. Egg proteins set when heated and hold the forcemeat together. Too little binding makes patties or balls crumble in the pan, while the fish stays soft and delicate.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turbot, butter, bread, egg, lemon, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turbot, butter, bread, egg, lemon, parsley, pepper. 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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