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Stewed Eels

A stew of eels simmered with claret, fish stock, onion, garlic, carrot, herbs, lime rind, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Stewed Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Skin and clean the eels, then cut them into two-inch fillets.

Make the stew

  1. In a stew-pan, melt the butter and sauté the sliced onion for 5 minutes.

  2. Add the claret, fish stock, garlic, carrot, and sweet herbs; boil for 10 minutes while stirring.

  3. Stir in the salt, spiced pepper, lime rind, and add the eel pieces.

  4. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Arrange the eel on a serving dish, strain the gravy, thicken it, and reheat almost to boiling.

  2. Add sugar and parsley, then pour the gravy around the fish.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Conger eel
Provides the main protein, which firms and flakes as it simmers in the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flavour of the sautéed onion into the stew.
Sliced onion
Softens and sweetens as it sautés, building a savoury base for the gravy.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour, helping to lift and deepen the gravy.
Fish stock
Supplies the liquid base of the gravy and reinforces the seafood flavour.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and body to the gravy as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer the eel gently. Boiling vigorously can break up the fish and toughen its proteins, so keeping the gravy at a gentle simmer keeps the pieces intact and tender.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (freshwater eel, butter, onion, fish, garlic, carrot, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against freshwater eel, butter, onion, fish, garlic, carrot, pepper. 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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