Skip to main content
Main

Collared Eels

Collared eels are eels simmered in a seasoned broth, set in gelatin, and served chilled with egg and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Collared Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the eels

  1. Clean the eels and cut them into 2‑inch pieces.

  2. Place the eels in cold water seasoned with salt, 2 dozen peppercorns, the onion, carrot, and vinegar.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim well, and boil steadily for 1 hour or longer if the eels are large.

  4. Remove the eels, slip out the bones, and cut the meat into small pieces.

Make the aspic

  1. Return the bones to the pot and boil the liquid uncovered for 30 minutes, then strain.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water and stir it into the strained liquid.

Set and serve

  1. Rinse a mold in cold water, arrange the eel pieces and slices of hard‑boiled egg in it, and add a few sprigs of parsley.

  2. Pour the liquid over the eel and egg, then refrigerate until set.

  3. Turn out the mold and serve with a salad.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Carrot + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,892 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 flesh, which is set in a clear savory jelly.
Gelatine
Sets the strained cooking liquid into a firm jelly that holds the eel pieces.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavor to the poaching liquid that carries into the stock.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavor to the poaching liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the poaching liquid and balances the rich fish.

The step that matters

Skim the poaching liquid well. Skimming removes foam and coagulated proteins that would cloud the stock, so the strained liquid sets clear and clean-tasting around the eel.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes