Skip to main content
Main

Eel Pie

A baked dish of eels in a potato paste crust, seasoned with pepper, sea salt, parsley, butter, stock, mushroom catsup, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a dish with potato paste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the cut eels in the dish and season with pepper, coarse sea salt, parsley, and a little butter.

  2. Pour stock or gravy over the eels, add mushroom catsup, and dredge with flour.

  3. Cover with potato paste and bake 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 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. Potato + peppertop 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
Form the main body of the pie, becoming tender and flavourful as they cook.
Stock or gravy
Provides moisture so the filling stays juicy rather than drying in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light gravy around the eels.
Mushroom catsup
Adds a concentrated savoury, umami depth to the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the filling.

The step that matters

Cover with potato paste and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The sealed crust traps steam so the eels cook gently in their own juices and gravy. Baking long enough ensures the fish is fully cooked and tender, while the flour-thickened liquid needs time to set into a smooth sauce.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes