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Eels Stewed

A stew of eel pieces cooked in beef gravy with onion, herbs, spices, and red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Eels Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Cut the eels into 3-inch pieces and cook them until half done.

  2. Let the eels cool and then place them in a pot with beef gravy.

Stew

  1. Add chopped onion, parsley, white pepper, coarse sea salt, sage, and a pinch of mace.

  2. Stew the eels until tender.

  3. If desired, add chopped anchovies, mustard, walnut ketchup, and red wine.

Finish and serve

  1. For a richer sauce, add port wine and lemon juice after stewing, then strain and thicken with butter and flour.

  2. Serve with toasted bread sippets.

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. Sage + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

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

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, becoming tender during the slow stew.
Beef gravy
Supplies the liquid and savory base that the eels stew in.
Butter and flour
Thicken the strained sauce to a smooth, coating consistency.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the stewing liquid.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and richness to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stewing the eels until tender. Eels need gentle, sustained simmering to become tender. Cooking them too hard can toughen the flesh and break it apart, so keep the liquid at a low simmer.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parsley, sage, mace, mustard, walnut):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parsley, sage, mace, mustard, walnut. 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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