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Stewed Eels

A savory stew of eels simmered with onions, butter, flour, port, stock, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add the chopped onions and cook until light brown.

  3. Stir in the flour until well blended.

  4. Add the stock, port, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.

  5. Cut the eels into 2-inch lengths and add them to the stewpan.

  6. Cover tightly and stew for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot platter with large croutons or neat pieces of toast.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, which becomes tender as they stew in the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the stew.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, body-rich sauce when stirred in.
Port
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the liquid.
Onions
Build savoury sweetness and aroma as they brown in the butter.

The step that matters

Covering and stewing the eels. Eels are cooked gently in covered liquid so the flesh becomes tender without drying or breaking apart. Keeping the lid tight holds in steam and heat, so the stew should stay at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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