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Anguille Bouillie- -boiled Eel

A boiled eel dish seasoned with salt, onion, herbs, then coated in butter and breadcrumbs and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Anguille Bouillie- -boiled Eel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the eels into 4‑inch pieces.

Boil and cool

  1. Boil the eels in slightly acidulated and salted water with onion and faggot until cooked.

  2. Allow the eels to cool.

Coat and serve

  1. Dip the cooled eels in melted butter and then in bread crumbs.

  2. Broil the eels over a brisk fire.

  3. Serve with hot and cold sauces.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Provides the main flesh, which firms and turns opaque when cooked through in simmering water.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the crumbs stick and encouraging browning under the broiler.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating that contrasts with the soft cooked flesh.

The step that matters

Broil the eels over a brisk fire. The coated eels need enough direct heat to brown the crumbs quickly. Slow heat dries the flesh before the coating turns golden.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread. 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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