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Spitchcock Eels

Eels cut into pieces, seasoned, and broiled, served with anchovy and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spitchcock Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Leave the skin on the eels and cut them into 3‑inch pieces.

  2. Open them on the belly side and clean them thoroughly.

  3. Wipe the eels dry and wet them with the beaten egg.

  4. Sprinkle chopped parsley, pepper, coarse sea salt, sage, and mace on both sides.

Cook and serve

  1. Rub a gridiron with a bit of suet and broil the eels until they are a fine color.

  2. Serve with anchovy and butter sauce.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Sage + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Provide the main body of the dish, with their firm flesh holding up to broiling.
Beaten egg
Adds moisture and helps the seasonings cling to the eel pieces.
Suet
Greases the gridiron so the eels do not stick and gain a little richness.

The step that matters

Broil until a fine color. Eels are fatty and delicate, so broiling too long can dry the flesh and burn the coating. Watch the color closely and stop once it is golden.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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