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Method of Roasting Eels

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Method of Roasting Eels

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Skin and wash the eels, then cut them into three to five pieces.

  2. Make a seasoning with nutmeg, long pepper, salt, thyme, sage, and lemon peel, mixed with bread crumbs.

  3. Strew the seasoning generously over the eels and skewer them on a spit.

  4. Baste the eels continuously while roasting until they crack and turn white at the bone.

  5. Serve with melted butter and lemon juice for the best sauce.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Nutmeg + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together642 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, thyme, sage, lemon, bread, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, thyme, sage, lemon, bread, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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