On Food and Cooking

Ancient Quenelles
Pike is good too. Egg white should be
mixed into the dish called spumeum which
is made with pike, so that this dish may be
quite soft rather than hard, and wholesome
when mixed together.
— Anthimus, On the Observance of Foods,
ca. 600 CE
Fish Balls and Cakes Quenelles are
essentially refined fish balls, a genre of which
there are many regional variations. Chinese
fish balls are bound with egg and cornstarch,
lightened with water; Norwegian fish balls are
enriched with butter and cream, bound with
potato flour; Jewish gefilte fish (thought to
derive via eastern Europe from French
quenelles), bound with eggs and matzoh meal,
and aerated by chopping. Less delicate and
tricky fish mixtures include coarse cakes and
croquettes bound with eggs and starchy
particles like bread crumbs, and mousses
made from cooked fish and held together with