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Soles or Eels Stewed

A stew of eels or soles simmered in beef gravy, thickened with flour and butter, flavored with mushroom ketchup, port wine, cream, cayenne, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Soles or Eels Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Half-fry the fish until slightly browned, then drain excess fat.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, then cover with beef gravy.

Simmer and thicken

  1. Simmer gently for 15-20 minutes, ensuring they are not overcooked.

  2. Carefully lift the fish with a slice.

  3. Thicken the sauce with flour and butter, then flavor with mushroom ketchup and port wine.

  4. Simmer for 1-2 minutes, then strain the sauce over the fish.

  5. Alternatively, mix the thickening with 1 cup of cream, seasoned with cayenne and nutmeg, and optionally add a spoonful of ketchup.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together570 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Soles or eels
Provide the main protein, which turns tender and flaky when gently simmered.
Beef gravy
Forms the savoury cooking liquid that the sauce is built from.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with butter into a smooth body.
Butter
Adds richness and helps flour form a smooth thickening base.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a silkier texture to the optional sauce variation.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without overcooking. Fish proteins toughen and dry out when boiled or simmered too long, so the fish should be held at a gentle simmer and checked early.

“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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