Skip to main content
Main

Collared Eels

Collared eels are eels rolled, simmered, and served with a thickened jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Collared Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Lay the eels flat and season with parsley, eschalot, pepper, salt, beaten spices, and mushroom powder.

  2. Roll and bind the eels tightly with tape.

  3. Place them in a stewpan with veal stock, lemon pickle, and white wine.

  4. Simmer over low heat until cooked through.

Make the jelly

  1. Remove the eels and skim the liquid to remove fat.

  2. Season the liquid with salt, clear it with eggs, and strain through a tamis cloth.

  3. Boil the liquid gently until it thickens to a strong jelly.

  4. Pour the jelly into a bowl and let it cool.

Serve

  1. Once the eels are cold, remove the tape, trim the ends, and wipe them dry.

  2. Serve the eels with the jelly around them, garnished with pickled barberries and lemon slices.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Main protein; rolling and binding keeps the shape while it cooks gently in liquid.
Veal stock
Supplies gelatin and savoury body, which sets the cooled liquid into a jelly.
Eggs
Egg whites collect fine particles as they cook, clearing the cloudy liquid for the jelly.
Lemon pickle
Adds sharp acidity and a bright, tangy flavour to the poaching liquid.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the poaching liquid as it reduces.
Parsley
Contributes fresh, herbal aroma to the seasoning inside the rolled eels.

The step that matters

Clearing the jelly with eggs. Whisked egg whites trap cloudy particles as they heat and rise, so the liquid must be strained gently through cloth. Rushing this leaves the jelly murky and it may not set clear.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mushroom, veal, lemon, white wine, egg):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, veal, lemon, white wine, egg. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes