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Eel Broth

A clear broth made by simmering eel with water, salt, parsley, onions, and a clove.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Eel Broth

Why it works: Parsley and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,768 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Eel Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and wash the eel, then cut it into slices.

  2. Place the eel slices in a small saucepan and cover with water.

Simmer

  1. Add salt, parsley, onions, and clove.

  2. Simmer gently until the eel is tender.

Strain and serve

  1. Skim off the fat and strain the broth through a fine sieve into a cup.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Provides the main flavour and body of the broth as it simmers.
Button onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering gently until the eel is tender. A gentle simmer keeps the liquid just below boiling, so the eel cooks evenly and stays tender. A hard boil makes the proteins tighten and the broth cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, clove):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, clove. 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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