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Eel in Aspic

A cooked eel served in a mold of aspic jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eel in Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eel

  1. Remove any small bones from the eel with a knife.

  2. Sprinkle pepper, coarse sea salt, and chopped parsley over the eel.

  3. Roll the eel up and tie it in a piece of muslin.

Poach and cool

  1. Boil the eel in water with vinegar for 20 minutes.

  2. Let the eel cool completely, then slice it.

Set in aspic

  1. Arrange the best slices around the sides of a mold and place the rough pieces in the center.

  2. Fill the mold with nearly cold aspic jelly.

  3. Store in the larder until ready to serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + vinegartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

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

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, providing the flesh that is sliced and set in jelly.
Aspic jelly
Sets around the eel slices, holding them in a firm, clear gel that can be sliced and served.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity to the poaching water, cutting the richness of the eel.

The step that matters

Fill the mold with nearly cold aspic jelly. Aspic is a gelatin-based liquid that sets as it cools. If it is too hot, it can melt or cloud the eel slices and prevent a clean set, while if it is too cold it may set before filling evenly and trap air or lumps around the fish.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Peppermintfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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