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Eel Soup

A soup made with eels, onion, butter, mace, sweet herbs, flour, cream, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,078 recipes. Both carry eugenol, which smells clove, spicy. The science ↓

Eel Soup

8 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Wash the eels, cut them into thin slices, and put them in the stewpan with the butter.

  2. Let them simmer for a few minutes.

  3. Pour the water into them.

Make the soup

  1. Add the onion, cut in thin slices, the herbs, mace, and seasoning.

  2. Simmer until the eels are tender, but do not break the fish.

  3. Take them out carefully.

Thicken and serve

  1. Mix the flour smoothly to a batter with the cream.

  2. Bring it to a boil.

  3. Pour over the eels.

  4. Serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

550Calories
15 gProtein
7 gFat
105 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  2. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

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

  4. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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 (in the method)
Provide the main body and flavour of the soup as the central ingredient.
Flour
Thickens the liquid when mixed into a batter and heated.
Cream
Adds richness and body, and helps the flour batter blend smoothly.
Onion
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until the eels are tender, but do not break the fish. Gentle simmering cooks the fish through while keeping its flesh intact; a hard boil toughens proteins and causes delicate slices to fall apart.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, onion):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, onion. 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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