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Eel Broth

A broth made by simmering eel with onion, stock, and tapioca, seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Eel Broth

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 Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the onion.

  2. Fry the onion in hot fat until pale brown, but not burnt.

  3. Cut the skinned eel into pieces and add it to the pan with the fried onion.

Simmer the broth

  1. Pour in 3 pints of stock or water, bring to a boil, skim off any foam, and simmer gently for about 1 hour.

  2. Twenty minutes before serving, strain the broth, return it to the pot, and stir in the tapioca or sago.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve with a sprinkle of chopped parsley just before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Gives the broth its main flavour and body as it simmers.
Tapioca or sago
Thickens the broth as its starch swells with heat.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth when fried to pale brown.
Dripping or butter
Carries the heat for frying the onion and adds richness.

The step that matters

Adding the tapioca or sago. Tapioca and sago need time in simmering liquid to swell and thicken the broth fully. Stirring them in only twenty minutes before serving leaves little time for that, so the broth may stay thin. Strain first so the starch thickens the clear liquid evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parsley. 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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