Fish forcemeat (fiskefarse)

About the dish

Fiskefarse var grunnlaget for pudding og boller og et sentralt kjøkkenhåndverk i norsk husholdning. Kolje (hyse) ble regnet som best. Kokeboken understreker at farsen bør lages på et kjølig sted og at man må prøve seg frem med spedningen ved å koke en prøvebolle. Fra Henriette Schønberg Erken og Caroline Steens «Kogebog for skole og hjem» (1900).

How to make it

1. 1

   Clean and scrape the fish

   Scrape the scales off the haddock from the tail upwards, clean and wash the fish well. Fillet the fish from skin and bones from the tail upwards, dry it in a cloth, scrape the meat from the bottom upwards and grind it fine on a board.

2. 2

   Stir the forcemeat

   For one deep plate of scraped fish, allow 25 g potato starch, 15 g salt, about 2.5 dl milk, 7.5 dl cream and 1 pinch of mace. Pound or stir the fish with the starch and salt for half an hour.

3. 3

   Thin with milk and cream

   Thin in the milk and cream alternately, preferably at 3-minute intervals. The forcemeat may be somewhat looser for a pudding than for balls. Feel free to cook a test ball to check the consistency.

4. 4

   Steam into a pudding

   Grease and coat a mould, fill it with forcemeat and place it in the oven in a roasting pan with boiling water for about ¾ hour. Serve with stirred butter.

5. 5

   Make stock from the trimmings

   Put the head, skin and bones on in cold, salted water – 1 tsp salt per liter of water and enough water to cover the fish well – and make stock.