Name: Brown Stew of Eels and Mushrooms
Ingredients: 2 pounds eels, dressed and washed; Cold, salted water; Flour, for coating; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Butter, for frying; 1 can mushrooms or fresh mushrooms, cleaned and chopped; Boiling water, enough to cover

Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Brown Stew of Eels and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the eels into two-inch lengths and place them in a pot with enough cold, salted water to cover.
Heat the water to boiling, then drain the eels and dry them on a clean cloth.
If using fresh mushrooms, wash them thoroughly and chop them small. If using canned mushrooms, set aside the liquid.
Roll the dried eels in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

Cook the stew

In a saucepan, melt enough butter to prevent burning and brown the eels evenly.
Once browned, add the mushrooms and enough boiling water to cover. Season with salt and pepper.

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.

Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,253 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eels: Form the main body of the stew, becoming tender as they simmer in the liquid.
Mushrooms: Add earthy flavor and moisture to the stew.
Flour: Coats the eels so they brown evenly and help thicken the stew.
Butter: Fat for frying that carries heat and browns the eels.

The step that matters

Browning the eels in butter. Butter can burn at high heat, so enough fat must be used and the eels browned evenly. Well-dried, flour-coated pieces brown better and develop savory flavor that carries into the stew.

“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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Brown Stew of Eels and Mushrooms