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Eel Broth

A broth made by simmering eel with onion, parsley, bay leaf, cloves, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Eel Broth

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 ↓

Eel Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, clean, and skin the eel, then cut it into small pieces.

Make the broth

  1. Put the eel pieces in a stewpan and add the cold water, onion, parsley, bay leaf, cloves, and a little salt and pepper.

  2. Simmer gently for about 1.5 hours, skimming as necessary.

  3. Strain the broth into a basin and let it cool, then remove any fat.

  4. Reheat in small quantities as needed.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eel
Gives the broth its main flavour and body as it simmers.
Cold water
Serves as the liquid that extracts flavour and gelatin from the eel.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Skimming removes foam and impurities that rise as the eel cooks, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting. Simmering gently rather than boiling prevents cloudiness and keeps the flesh from breaking up.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, clove, pepper. 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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