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Eels a LA Tartare

A stew of eels cooked with vegetables and herbs, finished with a roux and egg yolk sauce, served with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Eels a LA Tartare

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the eels

  1. Skin the eels, cut off the heads and tails, and form them into a ring.

  2. Place the eels in a stewpan with carrots, onion, garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, salt, pepper, stock, and white wine.

  3. Cover with buttered paper and stew over a low fire for about an hour.

Make the sauce

  1. Remove the eels and make a roux by mixing flour and butter.

  2. Combine the roux with the sauce from the stewpan until well mixed and reduced.

  3. Add 2-3 egg yolks to the sauce and strain it over the eels.

Coat and finish

  1. Let the eels cool.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and moisten with sauce or beaten egg. Sprinkle more bread crumbs on top.

  3. Wash with melted butter. Broil or bake until done.

  4. Serve with sauce tartare.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Main protein; the long stewing firms and cooks the flesh until tender.
Flour
Thickens the sauce with the butter roux, giving it body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding richness and smoothness.
Butter
Forms the roux and, brushed on top, promotes golden browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust over the eels.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks to the sauce. Yolks thicken through gentle heat. If the sauce boils after they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy, so keep it below a simmer while stirring.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, clove, garlic, parsley, thyme, pepper, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, clove, garlic, parsley, thyme, pepper, white wine. 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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