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Eel Broth

A broth made from eel, herbs, onion, peppercorns, cloves, and water, served warm with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Eel Broth

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and skin the eel, then cut it into small pieces.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the eel, sweet herbs, onion, peppercorns, cloves, and water.

Make the broth

  1. Simmer gently until the liquid is reduced to nearly half, removing any scum that rises.

  2. Strain the broth through a fine sieve and cool it.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, remove the fat from the top, warm the desired amount, and serve with toasted bread.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Provides the main flavour and gelatin-rich body as it simmers into the broth.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.
Sweet herbs
Contribute aromatic, herbal flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Peppercorns
Add gentle, warm pungency to the broth.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice note to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until reduced by about half. A gentle simmer extracts flavour and body from the eel without clouding the broth. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy, so skimming scum as it rises keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, clove, pepper. 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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