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Eel Pie

A savory pie made with eels, stock, herbs, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Eel Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the eels

  1. Wash and cut the eels into neat pieces.

  2. Soak them in salt and water.

  3. Place the eels in veal or white fish stock.

  4. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

  5. Remove the eels.

Make the stock and season

  1. Cook the heads and tails of the eels in the stock with onion, herbs, peppercorns, and allspice.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and lemon juice.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place in a pie dish.

  2. Strain the stock over the fish to half its depth.

  3. Cover the dish with pastry.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour in hot cream when done.

  2. Thicken the gravy with brown roux and add flavored vinegar if desired.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 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

Eels
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and flaky when simmered and baked.
Veal or white fish stock
Forms the savoury liquid that cooks the eels and becomes the gravy.
Pastry
Encloses the pie and holds in steam while the filling bakes.
Brown roux or browned flour
Thickens the stock into a gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich stock and balances the fish.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and depth to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer the eels gently for about 30 minutes. Eel is delicate, and a hard boil breaks up the flesh and makes the stock cloudy. Gentle simmering keeps the pieces intact and tender while the stock develops flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, thyme, parsley, allspice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, thyme, parsley, allspice. 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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