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Spitchcocked Eels

Eels are coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then broiled and served with melted butter and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spitchcocked Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Skin the eels, split them down the belly, and remove the bone.

  2. Wash the eels well and cut them into pieces of 3-4 inches.

Make the butter and coat

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter with minced parsley, thyme, mace, sage, and finely chopped shallot.

  2. Coat the eels in egg and breadcrumbs.

  3. Place the coated eels in the pan to set the coating on both sides.

Grill and serve

  1. Grease the grill bars with a bit of suet to prevent sticking.

  2. Broil the eels for a few minutes until both sides are light brown.

  3. Garnish the eels with crispy parsley.

  4. Serve with melted butter and anchovy 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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Form the main body of the dish, cooked until the outside is set and lightly browned.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumbs to the eel pieces so the coating holds during cooking.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns under the grill.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the herb and shallot flavours through the dish.

The step that matters

Setting the coating in the pan. Egg and breadcrumbs need to be firmly set on both sides before grilling; if the coating is not set, it can slide off or burn before the eels cook through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsley, thyme, sage, shallot, egg, anchovy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, thyme, sage, shallot, egg, anchovy. 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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