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Conger Eel Soup

A soup made with conger eel, herbs, carrots, onions, peas, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Conger Eel Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the savory herbs, sliced carrot, chopped onions, and bay leaves in a saucepan.

  2. Fry the mixture until light brown.

  3. Add 4 quarts of water and bring to a boil.

  4. Skim the surface well.

  5. Season with 1 ounce of coarse sea salt and ½ ounce of black pepper.

Cook and finish

  1. Add the conger eel and simmer gently for 2 hours.

  2. Strain the soup.

  3. Stir in 1 pint of green peas.

  4. Add 1 pint of milk a few minutes 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.

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

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  5. Onion + peastop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 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 flesh and rich flavour of the soup as it simmers in the broth.
Green peas
Add sweetness and a soft, starchy body to the finished soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the savory flavour of the broth.
Onions
Build sweetness and depth of flavour when fried into the base.

The step that matters

Skim the surface well. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and foam that rise as the water heats, keeping the broth clear and free of bitter or greasy off-flavours.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, pepper, milk):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, pepper, milk. 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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