Why it works: Parsley and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 28,563 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Boiled Eels
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose small eels for boiling.
Place the eels in a saucepan with the parsley and enough water to cover them.
Cook and serve
Simmer until the eels are tender.
Remove the eels, pour a little parsley and butter over them, and serve in a tureen.
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 + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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 and flaky when gently simmered.
- Parsley
- Adds a fresh, herbal aroma that flavours the cooking water and the finished dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished eels.
The step that matters
Simmer until the eels are tender. Gentle simmering cooks the eels through without tearing them, while a hard boil can toughen the flesh and break it apart. Checking for tenderness with a fork or knife tells you when they are done.
“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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