Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Eel À LA Tartare
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean and divide the eel into pieces from tail to head.
Coat
Dip the eel pieces in beaten eggs, then coat with flour.
Roll the floured eel pieces in breadcrumbs.
Fry
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
Fry the coated eel pieces until golden brown and cooked through.
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.
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eel
- Is the main protein that the coating surrounds and that cooks through during frying.
- Eggs
- Act as a binder so the flour and breadcrumbs stick to the eel pieces.
- Flour
- Dries the surface of the eel and gives the egg a base to cling to for the breadcrumb layer.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form the outer crust that browns and turns crisp when fried.
The step that matters
Frying the coated eel until golden brown and cooked through. Oil at the right temperature browns the breadcrumb crust quickly, while the eel needs enough time to cook through. If the oil is too cool the coating absorbs grease and turns soggy; if too hot the outside burns before the centre is cooked.
“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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