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Conger Eel, Roasted

A roasted conger eel stuffed with a forcemeat of breadcrumbs, suet, herbs, and egg, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Conger Eel, Roasted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the conger eel without opening it.

  2. Make a forcemeat by mixing bread crumbs, suet, parsley, lemon-thyme, pepper, salt, and bind with the egg.

  3. Stuff the eel with the forcemeat and secure both ends with buttered paper.

Roast

  1. Dredge the eel with flour and baste it frequently.

  2. Add cider or vinegar to the dripping pan.

  3. When half done, change the end by which the eel hangs and continue to baste until fully cooked.

  4. Bake for about 1 hour, but be cautious as it may dry out.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Conger eel
Forms the main body of the dish and carries the stuffing while it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bulk out the forcemeat so it holds together inside the eel.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during roasting.
Egg
Binds the forcemeat so it holds its shape when sliced.
Cider or vinegar
Adds acidity to the dripping pan, flavouring the basting liquid and the drippings.

The step that matters

Bake for about 1 hour, basting carefully. Conger eel is lean and can dry out in the oven. Frequent basting and turning the eel at halfway help keep the flesh moist while it cooks through.

“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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