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Boiling Eels with Figs

A dish of eel pieces seasoned, wrapped in sage leaves, grilled, and served with a butter, chili, vinegar, and water sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Boiling Eels with Figs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Clean and cut the eel into finger-length pieces.

  2. Rub the eel with a mixture of salt and white pepper, and let it sit for 30 minutes.

  3. Wipe the eel dry, wrap each piece in sage leaves, and secure with coarse thread.

Cook and serve

  1. Roll the eel in salad oil or clarified butter, then place it on a grill.

  2. Squeeze lemon juice over the eel and broil gently until browned on all sides.

  3. Serve with a sauce made from butter, chili, vinegar, water, and a little salt.

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 + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sage + tarragontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together109 recipes

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

  4. White pepper + tarragontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a firm, flaky texture when broiled.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor, and forms the base of the serving sauce.
Sage leaves
Wrapped around the eel to add a herbal aroma as it cooks.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, oily flesh of the eel.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity to the serving sauce, balancing the butter.

The step that matters

Broil gently until browned on all sides. Eel is fatty and delicate, so high or prolonged heat can dry the flesh and burn the oil before it is cooked through. Gentle heat with frequent turning gives even browning and a moist interior.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, butter, lemon, tarragon. 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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