Why it works: Parsley and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Boiled Eels
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose small eels for boiling.
Place eels and parsley in a saucepan and add enough water to cover them.
Simmer until tender.
Serve
Remove eels.
Pour a little parsley and butter over them.
Serve in a tureen.
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.
-
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eels
- The main protein; simmering in water cooks them gently until the flesh becomes tender.
- Parsley
- Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the cooking water and the finished dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the finished dish.
The step that matters
Simmer until tender. Simmering rather than boiling hard keeps the eel flesh from toughening and breaking apart. Vigorous boiling contracts muscle proteins, making the eels tough and dry.
“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
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.