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Spitchcocked Eels

A dish of eels that are cleaned, seasoned, coated in breadcrumbs, and broiled over a fire.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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. Scour the eels with coarse sea salt and wash them.

  2. Cut off the heads, slit them open on the belly side, and remove the bone and guts.

  3. Cut the eels into pieces about 3 inches long and wipe them dry.

Make the coating

  1. In a stew-pan, melt the butter with minced parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, and salt, along with the chopped shallot.

  2. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks.

  3. Dip each piece of eel in the mixture, then roll in bread crumbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Grease a gridiron with suet and set it over a clear fire.

  2. Broil the eels until they are crisp and brown.

  3. Serve with crisp parsley and plain butter, or anchovy butter.

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

Silver eels
The main protein, whose firm flesh holds together through coating and broiling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the coating and helps the crumbs brown.
Egg yolks
Bind the herbs and butter so they cling to the eel pieces.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns under the heat.
Shallot
Adds a mild, savoury onion aroma to the coating.

The step that matters

Dipping and coating the eel pieces. The yolk and butter mixture must be cool enough not to scramble the yolks, and each piece needs an even coat so the crumbs brown evenly and do not fall off during broiling.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Leekfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, egg, bread. 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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