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Spitchcocked Eels

Eels coated with egg yolk and spice mixture, then broiled until brown, served with melted butter and fish sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spitchcocked Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and rub the gridiron with suet to prevent sticking.

Season and broil

  1. Coat the eels with the yolk of egg.

  2. Pound parsley, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and pepper together, then rub the mixture over the eels.

  3. Broil the eels until they are a clear brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter and fish sauce to taste.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Provide the main flesh that is cooked and eaten.
Egg yolk
Binds the spice mixture to the eels so it stays on during broiling.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, green herbal aroma to the spice coating.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the cooked eels when served.

The step that matters

Broil the eels until they are a clear brown. Eel fat drips and the surface can scorch quickly over direct heat, while the flesh needs enough time to cook through. Watching the colour helps balance browning against overcooking.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, nutmeg, clove, pepper, butter, fish sauce):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, nutmeg, clove, pepper, butter, fish sauce. 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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