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Spitchcocked Eels

Eels are cleaned, seasoned, coated in breadcrumbs, and broiled over a gridiron, served with butter, Reading sauce, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spitchcocked Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eels

  1. Skin the eels.

  2. Cut off the heads.

  3. Split the eels open.

  4. Remove the intestines and bones.

  5. Wash the eels thoroughly in salt water.

  6. Dry the eels inside and out.

  7. Cut the eels into 3-inch lengths.

Make the coating

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in the chopped parsley, shallot, sage, thyme, salt, and Cayenne pepper.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks and mix well.

  4. Dip each piece of eel into the sauce.

  5. Roll each piece in the bread crumbs.

Broil and serve

  1. Prepare a bright fire.

  2. Set the gridiron 3 inches from the coals.

  3. Rub the bars with suet.

  4. Broil the eels until they are a rich brown color.

  5. Garnish with parsley.

  6. Serve with melted butter, Reading sauce, and a fresh lemon.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Provide the main flesh that is cooked and served as the dish.
Egg yolks
Bind the parsley and herb butter so the coating clings to the eel pieces.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns during broiling.
Butter
Carries the herbs and adds richness and moisture to the eel.
Shallot
Adds a mild, sharp aroma that deepens the flavor of the coating.

The step that matters

Broil the eels until they are a rich brown color. Bread crumbs and egg proteins brown through Maillard reactions only at high heat, so the eels must be watched closely. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and soggy, while too much dries the flesh and burns the crust.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Leekfits less well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, sage, thyme, pepper, butter, egg, bread. 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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