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To Spitchcock Eels

Grilled eels seasoned with egg, parsley, salt, pepper, mace, and served with anchovy and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

To Spitchcock Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Cut the eels into 3‑inch pieces, keeping the skin on.

  2. Open and clean the eels, then dry them with a cloth.

  3. Wet the eels with egg and season with parsley, salt, pepper, and mace.

Grill and serve

  1. Rub a gridiron with suet and grill the eels until they are a fine color.

  2. Serve with anchovy and butter.

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. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Parsley + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,702 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Parsley + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Provide the main substance of the dish, cooking to a firm, flaky texture over the grill.
Egg
Coats the eels so the seasoning adheres and helps the surface brown evenly.
Suet
Greases the gridiron so the eels do not stick and fat helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Grilling the eels until they are a fine color. Eel is fatty and delicate, so the grill must be well greased and the heat steady. Too little grease lets the skin stick and tear, while too much heat burns the outside before the flesh cooks through.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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