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To Collar Eels

A seasoned eel dish simmered in a spiced vinegar broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Collar Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Remove the bones, heads, and tails from the eels and lay them flat.

  2. Season the eels with nutmeg, lemon peel, salt, pepper, parsley, marjoram, thyme, savory, and sage.

  3. Roll the eels tightly and bind them with kitchen twine.

Make the poaching liquid

  1. In a pot, boil the heads, tails, and bones in water, vinegar, onion, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

  2. Once boiling, add the eels and cook until tender.

  3. Remove the eels and continue boiling the liquid until slightly reduced.

  4. Strain and skim the liquid, then let it cool before adding the eels.

Preserve

  1. To preserve, occasionally reheat the liquid and add fresh vinegar.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 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
Provide the main body of the dish, firm flesh that holds its rolled shape when cooked.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that firms the eel flesh and helps preserve the jellied liquid.
Lemon peel
Adds aromatic citrus oils that brighten the rich flavour of the eels.
Sage leaves
Contributes a savory, herbal aroma that complements the fish.

The step that matters

Let the liquid cool before adding the eels. Adding eels to hot liquid can cook them further and make them break apart, so cooling the strained liquid keeps the rolls intact and the flesh tender.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, pepper, parsley, marjoram, thyme, sage, vinegar):

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, pepper, parsley, marjoram, thyme, sage, vinegar. 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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