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To Stew Eels

A stew of eels simmered in port wine, beef gravy, and aromatics, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Stew Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a stew pan, combine the eels, port wine, beef gravy, onion, mace, bay leaves, allspice, cloves, lemon, parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt.

  2. Simmer gently over low heat until the eels are cooked through.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the sauce and thicken it with flour and butter.

  2. Stir in anchovy sauce and ketchup 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  5. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Are the main protein, becoming tender and flaky as they cook gently in the liquid.
Port wine
Adds depth, sweetness and acidity to the sauce as it reduces with the gravy.
Beef gravy
Provides the savory liquid base that carries the flavor of the stew.
Flour and butter
Together form a roux that thickens the strained sauce to a smooth body.

The step that matters

Simmer gently over low heat. High heat can toughen the eel flesh and break it apart, while gentle simmering cooks it through and keeps the pieces intact.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, beef, onion, allspice, clove, lemon, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, beef, onion, allspice, clove, lemon, 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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