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Collared Eels

A pickled eel dish seasoned with anchovies, salt, mace, cayenne, parsley, vinegar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Collared Eels

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eels

  1. Remove the skin, head, fins, and tail from the eels.

  2. Open the belly from the tail to the head and clean it with a cloth.

  3. Use a sharp knife to open the back and remove the backbone and any other bones.

  4. Soak the fish in saltwater for 2 hours, then dry it thoroughly.

Season and wrap

  1. Spread the anchovies, saltpetre, sea salt, mace, cayenne pepper, and chopped parsley inside the fish.

  2. Roll the fish tightly from the tail and sew it in a cloth.

Cook and pickle

  1. Boil the fish for 10 minutes, then let it simmer for another 10 minutes.

  2. Transfer the fish to a jar.

  3. Boil vinegar and water with black peppercorns and a little salt, then cool it.

  4. Pour the pickle over the fish and press it down to exclude air.

Bake and serve

  1. For immediate consumption, bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
The main fish, whose firm flesh is cooked and then set in the pickle.
Saltpetre
Cures the flesh, helping preserve it and keep its colour during curing.
Sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the fish, helping to preserve it.
Anchovies
Adds savoury depth and richness that blends into the fish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the pickled fish.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the fish.

The step that matters

Pour the pickle over the fish and press it down to exclude air. The fish must stay fully submerged in the vinegar pickle. Keeping air out limits spoilage and surface mould, so the fish keeps well.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, vinegar. 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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