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Stewed Eels

A stew of eels simmered with bay leaves, mace, salt, pepper, vinegar, and a browned flour butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Stewed Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Skin, dress, and wash the eels in cold water.

  2. Dry the eels and cut them into 3-inch pieces.

Cook the eels

  1. Place the eel pieces in a deep skillet and add enough cold water to cover them.

  2. Add the bay leaves, powdered mace, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and cider vinegar.

  3. Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes after boiling.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter and mix in the browned flour.

  2. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the cooking water and boil until thickened like cream.

  3. Combine the thickened mixture with the fish and add crushed baked rusk.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provide the main protein, whose firm flesh holds its shape through stewing.
Browned flour
Thickens the butter and cooking liquid into a creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the sauce a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, fatty flavour of the eels and sauce.
Crushed baked rusk
Soaks up liquid and adds body to the sauce, thickening it further.

The step that matters

Boil the sauce until thickened like cream. Flour only thickens fully when the butter and flour mixture is boiled in the liquid, so the starch swells and sets. Stopping early leaves a thin, floury sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cider, vinegar, flour, butter, fish):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cider, vinegar, flour, butter, fish. 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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