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Eel Pie

A savory pie made with eels, ham, suet, spices, stock, cream, and herbs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Eel Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eels

  1. Skin the eels and cut them into pieces about 2 inches long.

  2. Place the eel pieces in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and boil for 45 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. In a separate saucepan, combine the stock with the ham, suet, salt, cayenne, black pepper, mace, nutmeg, lemon rind, parsley, mixed herbs, egg, parsley sprig, cloves, bay leaf, and arrowroot.

  2. Add the boiled eel pieces to the stock mixture and simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in the cream and cook for an additional 5 minutes without boiling.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
The main ingredient, giving the pie its substance and flavour.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, meaty flavour to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the filling and keeps it moist.
Egg
Helps bind and set the filling as it bakes.
Arrowroot
Thickens the liquid into a smooth filling.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream without boiling. Cream can separate and turn grainy when it boils, and the egg in the mixture can curdle at high heat. Keeping the heat gentle holds the filling smooth and creamy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, parsley, egg, clove):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, parsley, egg, clove. 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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