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
Boil the eels in a little water with some parsley until tender, then season properly.
Serve with the cooking liquid and chopped parsley.
For sauce, use chopped parsley and butter.
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.
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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 ingredient; its flesh becomes tender when gently simmered in liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
- Parsley
- Adds a fresh, green aroma to the cooking liquid and the sauce.
The step that matters
Boil the eels until tender. Eel becomes tender only with gentle cooking. A hard boil toughens the proteins, leaving the flesh firm and rubbery. Check for tenderness and stop cooking once it is reached, since further heat firms the flesh more.
“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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