Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
To Broil Eels
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the eels and score them.
Coat and broil
Dip the eels into the beaten egg, then coat them with grated bread mixed with pepper, salt, and parsley.
Curl the eels and broil them.
Make the sauce
Mix melted butter with lemon pickle and catsup to make the sauce.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eels
- Serve as the main protein, cooked by broiling until firm and flaky.
- Beaten egg
- Acts as a binder so the bread coating sticks to the eels.
- Grated bread
- Forms a crisp coating that browns under the broiler.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness to the sauce.
The step that matters
Curl the eels and broil them. Eels can dry out or cook unevenly under direct heat. Curling them before broiling keeps the pieces compact, so the coating browns while the flesh stays moist.
“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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