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Collared Eels

Collared eels are eels prepared by skinning, seasoning, rolling, simmering in broth and wine, then served with a gelatinous sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Collared Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Skin the eels.

  2. Bone the eels.

  3. Lay the eels flat.

  4. Season the eels with parsley, shallot, pepper, salt, beaten spices, and mushroom powder.

  5. Roll the eels tightly.

  6. Bind the rolled eels with tape.

Poach the eels

  1. Place the eels in a stewpan with veal broth, lemon pickle, and white wine.

  2. Simmer until cooked through.

  3. Remove the eels from heat.

  4. Skim the fat from the liquid.

Make the jelly

  1. Season the liquid with salt.

  2. Clear the liquid with eggs.

  3. Strain the liquid through a tamis cloth.

  4. Boil the strained liquid gently until it becomes a strong jelly.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the tape from the eels.

  2. Trim the ends of the eels.

  3. Wipe the eels dry.

  4. Serve the eels with the jelly around them, garnished with pickled barberries and lemon slices.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 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
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered and rolled.
Veal broth
Provides the liquid that cooks the eels and, once clarified, sets into the jelly.
Eggs
Clarify the broth, collecting impurities so the jelly turns out clear.
White wine
Adds acidity and flavour to the poaching liquid and jelly.
Lemon pickle
Adds sharp, salty acidity that flavours the poaching liquid and jelly.

The step that matters

Boil the strained liquid gently until it becomes a strong jelly.. Gelatin in the broth sets only when enough liquid has evaporated and the stock is concentrated. Boiling hard can cloud the clarified liquid, and too little reduction leaves a weak jelly that will not hold its shape.

“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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