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Eels a LA Poulette

A French-style eel stew with butter, wine, mushrooms, lemon, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Eels a LA Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Disgorge the eels in vinegar and boiling water, then dry thoroughly and cut into 3 to 4-inch pieces.

  2. Combine the eels, mushrooms, and butter in a stewpan.

  3. Begin to fry the mixture.

  4. Dredge the mixture in flour.

Make the stew

  1. Add the broth and white wine.

  2. Stir until the liquid boils.

  3. Season with pepper, salt, and minced onion.

  4. Let the stew cook until the eels are tender.

  5. Skim off any floating grease.

  6. Remove the stew from heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix the lemon juice with the egg yolks.

  2. Stir the mixture quickly to prevent curdling.

  3. Do not return the mixture to heat.

  4. Serve the eels with croutons and lemon pieces for garnish.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

  4. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Are the main protein, becoming tender as they simmer in the stew.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and soft texture to the stew.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the eels and mushrooms brown when fried first.
Flour
Coats the pieces and thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the finished sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the broth, balancing the richness.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and lemon mixture off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat, but if the liquid gets too hot or is not stirred quickly, the proteins scramble and the sauce curdles. Stirring briskly and keeping the pan off the heat keeps it smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, white wine, lemon, mushroom, flour, pepper, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, white wine, lemon, mushroom, flour, pepper, egg. 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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