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Dried Conger Eels, High Flavoured

This is a preserved conger eel that is dried after being rubbed with spices and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dried Conger Eels, High Flavoured

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the eels

  1. Skin the eels, remove heads, tails, and fins, and split them open at the belly.

  2. Clean thoroughly and cut into 4-inch pieces.

Cure the eels

  1. Rub the pieces with cloves, mace, nutmeg, bay leaves, and sugar.

  2. Let them sit for 24 hours.

  3. Add coarse sea salt.

  4. Continue rubbing for another day.

  5. Rub the pieces with juniper berries, shallots, and table salt.

  6. Do this twice a day for two days.

  7. Wipe them dry.

  8. Hang in a well-ventilated area until dry.

Wrap and age

  1. Sew each piece in calico soaked in whisky or rum, ensuring the backbone is saturated.

  2. Tie with narrow tape.

  3. Hang to dry for one night.

  4. Coat with gelatine composition.

  5. Let cure for two months before broiling and serving hot.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 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

Eels
The main protein; curing firms and preserves its flesh for drying.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the flesh during curing.
Sugar
Balances the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured flesh.
Bay leaves
Adds aromatic herbal flavour to the cure.
Shallots
Adds a mild onion-like aroma to the cure.
Juniper berries
Adds resinous, piney aroma that complements the eel.

The step that matters

Turning the eels through the salt-and-spice rubs. Salt must penetrate evenly through the thick flesh; uneven rubbing or skipping the twice-daily turns can leave pockets under-cured and prone to spoilage during the long drying.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, nutmeg, sugar, shallot, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, nutmeg, sugar, shallot, 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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