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Eel Pie

A savory pie made with eels, potato paste, butter, stock, mushroom ketchup, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eel Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a dish with potato paste.

Assemble the pie

  1. Place the cut eels in the dish and season with pepper, coarse sea salt, parsley, and butter.

  2. Pour a little stock or a few tablespoons of gravy over the eels.

  3. Add a spoonful of mushroom catsup and dredge with flour.

  4. Cover with potato paste and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
Provide the main filling, becoming tender and flavorful as they cook slowly in the pie.
Potato paste
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and holds in moisture while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the filling taste rounded and carry flavor.
Flour
Dusted over the filling, it thickens the cooking liquid into a slightly saucy binder.
Stock or gravy
Supplies liquid that gently steams the eels and forms the sauce within the pie.
Mushroom catsup
Adds concentrated savory, umami depth to the filling and its sauce.

The step that matters

Covering with potato paste before baking. The sealed crust traps steam so the eels cook gently in their own juices and liquid. Leaving gaps lets moisture escape, so the filling can dry out or the sauce can thin.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, parsley, butter, mushroom, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, butter, mushroom, flour. 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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