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Spitchcocked Eels

A dish of eels spitchcocked with butter, herbs, egg yolk, and breadcrumbs, served with parsley, anchovy, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spitchcocked Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Scour the eels with coarse sea salt and wash them.

  2. Cut off the heads, slit them open on the belly side, and remove the bone and guts.

  3. Cut the eels into pieces about 3 inches long and wipe them dry.

Make the coating

  1. In a stew pan, melt the butter with minced parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, and salt, along with a little chopped shallot.

  2. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks.

  3. Dip each piece of eel in the mixture, then roll in bread crumbs to coat.

Broil and serve

  1. Rub a gridiron with a bit of suet and set it over a clear fire.

  2. Broil the eels until they are crisp and brown.

  3. Serve with crispy parsley and plain butter in a boat, along with anchovy and butter.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Form the main body of the dish, staying moist inside while the outside crisps under heat.
Egg yolks
Bind the herb butter to the eel pieces so the bread crumbs adhere evenly.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during broiling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying the herbs and helping the coating brown.
Suet
Greases the gridiron so the coated eels release cleanly and brown with a little extra fat.

The step that matters

Broil the eels until crisp and brown. Eel fat and the coating can scorch quickly over a hot fire, while the thick flesh stays underdone near the bone. Keep the eels at a steady distance from the heat and watch for even browning so the inside cooks through as the outside crisps.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Leekfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, egg, 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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