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Eels a LA Tartare

Fried eel pieces coated in crumbs, served with tartare sauce and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Eels a LA Tartare

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eel

  1. Cover eel pieces with boiling water and let stand 5 minutes, then drain.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip drained eels in beaten egg seasoned with salt and pepper, then coat with bread or cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry coated eels in boiling fat for 5 minutes until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Spread tartare sauce in the center of a cold dish and arrange fried eels in a circle on top.

  2. Garnish with parsley and 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. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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

Eels
Provide the main protein, which becomes firm and flaky when fried.
Beaten egg
Binds the crumbs to the eel so the coating stays on during frying.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried in hot fat.
Tartare sauce
Adds moisture and tangy richness to contrast with the crisp fried eel.

The step that matters

Frying the coated eels. Fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly. If the fat is too cool, the crumbs absorb oil and turn greasy, and the eel can overcook before the coating browns.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, bread, sauce. 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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