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Forcemeat of Fish
Clear away the skin and bone from turbot, brill, or any solid fish; mince one pound of the flesh very fine. Stew an onion in butter, and when tender, pound it in a mortar with four ounces of butter, broken into bits. Add six ounces of bread, previously soaked in milk and squeezed dry, a couple of eggs, which should be well beaten, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; and when all is well mixed, stir in the fish, and make up into balls to be fried or boiled. Previous to mixing the fish with the other ingredients it should be passed through a wire sieve.
A classic panade-bound fish forcemeat, used for quenelles, stuffing balls and garnish rather than as a dish in its own right. Everything hinges on texture: the mixture must be smooth and cold before it is shaped.
- The sieving is the pointThe fish is minced very fine and passed through a wire sieve (the mortar here is for the onion and butter), which is what gives a fine, smooth forcemeat. A food processor does much of the same work quickly; pulse the raw fish with the butter and onion, then push it through a drum sieve or fine mesh if you want the old smoothness.
- Fish to useTurbot and brill are flat, firm and lean, which is exactly what is wanted. Halibut, cod loin, monkfish, pike or haddock all work. Avoid oily fish and avoid anything watery, which will slacken the mix.
- The bread panadeSix ounces of bread to a pound of fish sounds heavy by modern standards, and it is: this is a stretched, economical forcemeat. Use stale white crumb with the crusts off, soak in milk and wring it out hard, or reduce to four ounces for a lighter result closer to a quenelle.
- WeightsOne pound of fish is about 450 g; four ounces of butter is 115 g, six ounces of bread about 170 g. "A couple of eggs" means two whole eggs, beaten.
- Season by tasting a test pieceRaw forcemeat cannot be judged by taste. Poach a teaspoonful in simmering water for two minutes, eat it, then adjust salt, pepper and nutmeg. Nutmeg here is a few gratings, not a teaspoon.
- Chill before shapingThe butter must be firm or the balls will slump. Refrigerate the mixture for at least half an hour, then roll with wet hands into walnut-sized balls.
- Cooking timesPoach in barely trembling salted water or fish stock for 6-8 minutes for a small ball, until they float and are firm to the touch. Fried, they need 3-4 minutes in shallow butter or oil over moderate heat; roll them in flour first so they colour rather than stick.
- YieldAbout 2 lb of mixture, which gives roughly two dozen small balls: enough to garnish a fish stew or soup for eight, or to stuff a large whole fish.
Forcemeat, from the French farce by way of a folk-etymology on "forced" (stuffed), was one of the workhorses of the Victorian kitchen: a bound, seasoned paste used to fill boned birds and fish, to shape into balls as garnish, or to line a raised pie. The bread-and-milk panade is the older English method; the finer French quenelle tradition, which leans on cream and egg white and dispenses with much of the bread, was working its way into English kitchens through the same decades, and the two approaches sit side by side in late-nineteenth-century manuals. Passing the fish through a wire sieve is patient, arm-aching work with a mortar and a horsehair or wire tammy.