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Eels, a LA Venitienne

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,053 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: butter, anchovy

Directions

  1. Cut the eels into 4-inch pieces.

  2. Stew the eels in mirepoix with French white wine until done.

  3. Drain, trim, and glaze the eels with lobster coral-colored glaze.

  4. Arrange the eels in two parallel conical groups on a serving dish.

  5. Pour Venetian sauce around the eels, adding mirepoix, anchovy butter, and lemon juice.

  6. Pass the sauce through a tammy into a pan with prepared button mushrooms.

  7. Add blanched chopped parsley just before serving.

  8. Garnish with groups of fried mussels and serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  3. White wine + mushroomtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,704 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Pepper + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, lobster, sauce, mushroom, parsley, pepper, carrot):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, lobster, sauce, mushroom, parsley, pepper, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

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