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To Spitchcock Eels

A method of preparing eels by cleaning, stuffing, battering, breading, and broiling, served with anchovy sauce or flavored vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Spitchcock Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Clean the eels and rub them with salt.

  2. Slit open the belly and remove the bone.

  3. Wash and dry the eels, then cut them into pieces about four inches long.

  4. Dredge the pieces with flour, then wipe off the excess to keep them dry.

Coat the pieces

  1. Make a thick batter with melted butter, egg yolks, minced parsley, sage, a little shallot, pepper, cayenne, and salt.

  2. Dip the eel pieces in the batter, then roll them in fine bread crumbs.

  3. Dip and roll them again in the batter and bread crumbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the pieces over a clear fire until they are a light brown.

  2. Serve with anchovy sauce or melted butter mixed with flavored vinegar, garnished with crisped parsley.

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

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

  2. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  5. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
The main protein; it is cooked through while its coating turns crisp and golden.
Flour
Dries the surface of the eel pieces so the batter and crumbs adhere evenly.
Egg yolks
Bind the butter and herbs into a thick batter that clings to the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the batter and helps the crumbs brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns under the broiler.
Vinegar
Adds acidity to the butter sauce, balancing the richness of the fish.

The step that matters

Wiping off the excess flour before coating. Surplus flour left on the eels turns gummy and pasty under heat, so the batter and crumbs may not stick or crisp well. Drying the pieces first keeps the coating even.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg, parsley, shallot, pepper, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, parsley, shallot, pepper, 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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