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Collared Eel

Collared eel is a preserved eel prepared with anchovy butter, spices, and simmered in vinegar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 ↓

Collared Eel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Pound the anchovies with the butter in a mortar until smooth.

  2. Spread the anchovy mixture on the flattened eel.

  3. Sprinkle the eel with chopped parsley, pepper, coarse sea salt, fine spice, and Cayenne.

  4. Roll the eel tightly.

  5. Tie the rolled eel up in a cloth.

Poach and set

  1. Combine water, vinegar, coarse sea salt, mace, whole white pepper, and bay leaves in a stew pan.

  2. Add the eel to the pan and bring to a boil.

  3. Cook the eel for about 1 hour.

  4. Remove the eel from the pan.

  5. Tie the eel tightly.

  6. Place the eel in a basin.

  7. Pour the cooking liquid over the eel.

  8. Let the eel cool completely before removing the cloth.

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

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

  2. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

  4. Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Parsley + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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, which is rolled, poached and sliced when set.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savoury depth that flavours the filling throughout.
Butter
Mashed with the anchovies to make a smooth spread that adds richness and moisture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the poaching liquid, which brightens the flavour of the eel.

The step that matters

Let the eel cool completely before removing the cloth. Cooling while tightly wrapped lets the rolled eel hold its shape and set firmly. Removing the cloth early can cause it to loosen or unroll.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, pepper, vinegar, mace. 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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