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Eel a LA Tartare

A dish of simmered eel coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried and served with tartare sauce.

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 ↓

Eel a LA Tartare

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the eel

  1. Skin and clean the eel, then cut it into 3‑inch pieces.

  2. Place the pieces in a saucepan and cover with fish broth.

  3. Simmer for 20 minutes, then let the pieces cool in the broth.

  4. Drain and wipe the eel pieces dry.

Bread and fry

  1. Dip them in egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in very hot oil until golden brown.

  3. Drain on paper towels and serve on a napkin garnished with fried parsley, with tartare sauce on the side.

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. Fish + parsleytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,341 recipes

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

  3. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Fish + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,948 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

Eel
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in broth before frying.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs adhere to the eel pieces.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Drying the eel before breading. Any surface moisture left after poaching will steam rather than fry, and it can make the egg and breadcrumb coating slide off or turn soggy in the hot oil. Thoroughly drying the pieces helps the coating stick and crisp.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pepper, egg, 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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