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Fish Forcemeat

A mixture of fish, butter, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, shallot, lemon peel, parsley, salt, cayenne, and an egg, pounded into a smooth forcemeat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a mortar, combine the fish, butter, bread crumbs, hard-boiled egg yolks, shallot, lemon peel, and parsley.

  2. Pound the mixture until smooth and well combined.

  3. Season with salt and Cayenne pepper to taste.

  4. Add the yolk and white of one egg and mix thoroughly.

  5. Your forcemeat is now ready for use.

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)
Forms the main body of the forcemeat, giving it its delicate flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the forcemeat moist and tender once cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture into a smooth paste.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and help the forcemeat hold together smoothly.
Egg
Acts as a binder that sets during cooking and holds the mixture together.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture until smooth and well combined. Thorough pounding breaks the fish fibers into a fine paste. Under-worked mixtures stay grainy and can separate or feel coarse when cooked.

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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