Skip to main content
Main

To Collar Eels

A method of preparing eels by marinating, seasoning, and slow boiling them in a broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg 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 ↓

To Collar Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eel

  1. Scour the eel well with coarse sea salt and wipe it clean.

  2. Cut the eel down the back and remove the bone, head, and tail.

  3. Spread the egg yolk over the eel.

  4. Mix the cloves, mace, nutmeg, pepper, salt, parsley, and sweet herbs together and sprinkle over the eel.

  5. Roll the eel tightly and tie it in a cloth.

Poach and set

  1. In a pot, add enough water to boil the eel, along with the onion, cloves, mace, and bay leaves.

  2. Boil the bones, head, and tail for 30 minutes with a little vinegar and salt.

  3. Remove the bones.

  4. Add the eel to the pot.

  5. Boil the eel for 2 hours if large, or less if smaller.

  6. Let the eel cool.

  7. Remove it from the cloth and liquor.

Serve

  1. Slice the eel or serve it whole, garnished with raw parsley.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 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

Eel
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and firm enough to slice when cooked and cooled.
Egg yolk
Binds the spice and herb coating to the eel so it stays in place while rolling and cooking.
Bay leaves
Add a subtle aromatic flavour to the poaching liquor that carries into the eel.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity to the poaching liquor, sharpening its flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the eel gently after it is rolled and tied. Rapid boiling can break the fish apart and toughen the flesh. A gentle simmer cooks the eel evenly while keeping it intact, and the cloth keeps the roll tight so it holds its shape.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, clove, mace, nutmeg, pepper, parsley, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes