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Fricasseed Eels

Eels simmered in butter, flour or cracker, parsley, salt, pepper, and optional vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Fricasseed Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Skin, clean, and cut the eels into 2-inch pieces.

  2. Boil the eels in water until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Add butter, flour or cracker, and chopped parsley.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and add vinegar if desired.

  3. Let simmer for 10 minutes and serve hot.

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

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

  2. Wheat + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together345 recipes

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

  3. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fat-based mouthfeel to the sauce.
Wheat flour or rolled cracker
Thickens the liquid so it clings to the eels rather than running thin.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich butter and fish flavour.

The step that matters

Boil the eels until tender. Eel flesh needs enough heat and time to become tender; stopping early leaves it tough. Cutting the pieces evenly to 2-inch lengths helps them cook at the same rate, so some are not overdone while others remain firm.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, wheat, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, wheat, pepper, vinegar. 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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