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Eel Patties

Eel Patties are savory cakes made from chopped eel, vinegar, butter, flour, broth, lemon rind, capers, parsley, salt, pepper, baked in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Eel Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the eel

  1. Wash and clean the eel.

  2. Chop the eel into small pieces.

  3. Soak the pieces in vinegar.

  4. Drain the eel pieces.

Make the filling

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  2. Gradually add flour and broth.

  3. Add lemon rind, capers, parsley, salt, and pepper to the saucepan.

  4. Add the eel to the saucepan and stew until cooked.

Bake and serve

  1. Line patty-pans with pastry.

  2. Fill the pans with the eel mixture.

  3. Cover and make a steam hole.

  4. Brush the tops with egg.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until done.

  6. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lemon + caperstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Forms the main body of the filling, providing the meaty texture and flavour of the patty.
Butter
Enriches the filling with fat, adding richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a sauce that binds the eel pieces together.
Broth
Provides the liquid that, with flour, makes the filling moist and savoury.
Egg
Brushed on the tops so the pastry browns attractively in the oven.
Vinegar
Soaks the eel, adding acidity that brightens its flavour.

The step that matters

Stewing the eel in the sauce. Cook the eel only until done and keep the filling thick. Overcooking toughens the protein and thin filling will run out of the pastry and make the base soggy.

Swap the capers

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, flour, lemon, parsley, pepper, egg. 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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