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Boiled Eels

Eels are boiled, seasoned, and baked with potato paste, stock, mushroom ketchup, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Eels

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

  1. Boil the eels in a little water with some parsley until tender.

  2. Season the eels with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and butter.

  3. Line a dish with potato paste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the eels in the dish and cover with stock or gravy, mushroom ketchup, and a sprinkle of flour.

  2. Cover with more potato paste and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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

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

  2. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Provide the main protein and texture, becoming tender through boiling and baking.
Potato paste
Forms a crust that encloses the filling and browns during baking.
Flour
Thickens the stock or gravy so the filling becomes saucy rather than watery.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and moisture into the eels.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury, umami depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Boiling the eels until tender. Eels need enough cooking to become tender, but overcooking makes the flesh dry and tough. Simmering gently keeps the eels moist before they bake in the sauce.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, pepper, butter, mushroom, ketchup, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, pepper, butter, mushroom, ketchup, flour. 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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