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Stewed Eels

Stewed eels simmered in stock with mace, cornflour, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,268 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Stewed Eels

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and skin the eels, then cut them into pieces.

  2. Soak the eels in salt water for 1 hour.

Stew

  1. In a pot, simmer the eels with the stock and seasoning for 1 hour.

Finish

  1. Thicken the mixture with cornflour.

  2. Stir in the chopped parsley before serving.

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. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  3. Milk + parsleytop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,011 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eels
The main ingredient; slow simmering makes the flesh tender and flavours the liquid.
White stock or milk and water
Forms the liquid base of the stew and carries its flavour.
Cornflour
Starch that thickens the stewing liquid into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the stewing liquid.

The step that matters

Thickening with cornflour. Cornflour is a starch that only thickens once heated in liquid. Mix it smoothly with a little cold liquid first, then stir it in while the stew is hot. Adding it dry or all at once causes lumps and a dull, uneven sauce.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, mace):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, mace. 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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