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Collared Eels

A boiled eel seasoned with pepper, salt, mace, cloves, allspice, sage, herbs, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Collared Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone and skin the eel, then split it open.

  2. Sprinkle the eel with pepper, salt, mace, cloves, allspice, sage, and minced herbs.

  3. Roll the eel up tightly and bind it with a broad piece of tape.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the rolled eel in water mixed with a little salt and vinegar until tender.

  2. Serve the eel whole or cut into slices.

  3. When cold, keep the eel in the boiling liquid with a little extra vinegar added.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  4. Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered in the seasoned liquid.
Sage
Adds a savoury, aromatic herbal flavour that penetrates the rolled eel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid, brightening the flavour and helping to firm the flesh.

The step that matters

Boil until tender, then keep in the liquid. Eel must simmer gently until the flesh is tender; a hard boil can toughen and break the flesh. Keeping the rolled eel in its seasoned liquid as it cools helps it stay moist and well flavoured.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, clove, allspice, sage, vinegar):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, allspice, sage, 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.

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