Another way to Spitchcock Eels

Ingredients

• Skin, slit up the eel, and bone it
• dredge these with flour
• thick batter made of melted butter
• minced parsley
• sage
• very little shallot
• fine bread-crumbs
• impaled on small spits

Method

1. 1

   Skin, bone, and cut eels into pieces.

2. 2

   Dredge with flour, dip in batter, roll in bread-crumbs, and broil until light brown.

3. 3

   Serve garnished with fried parsley and English butter-sauce.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The thorough good cook (1895) by George Augustus Sala, page 105. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

few bread- crumbs, and a piece of butter ; put the whole into a mortar and beat it to a paste. It is used for fish pies, and adds a fine relish to all made dishes of fish. It may also be rolled up into balls, and fried or stewed. FISH. 175 A most assuringly appetising concoction. Almost as great a favourite as potted shrimps with my dear deceased friend, Montas^u Williams, Q.C. 80. Pried Eels. If yom' eels are small, they should be curled round and dipped into egg, and then carefully fried. If of a good size, cut them into pieces ; season them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg ; flour them ; fry them in butter. Some people are prejudiced against eels. Combat the prejudice; subdue it. Consult Sir Hemy Thompson. Conger- eel, in particular, is as nourishing as turtle. 8 . Fricassee of Eels. Skin three or four large eels, and notch them from end to end. Cut each of them into four or live pieces, and lay them for half an hour to crimp in spring water ; dry them in a cloth and put them in a pan, Avith a bit of fresh butter, a green onion or two, and a little chopped parsley. Set the pan on the fire, and shake them about for a few minutes ; put in half a pint of white wine, and the same quantity of stock, with pepper, salt, and a blade of mace ; stew all together about half an hour ; then add the yolks of four or five eggs ; beat smooth a little grated nutmeg and some chopped parsley. Stir all well together, and let it simmer for a few minutes ; then squeeze in the juice of a lemon, give the whole a good shake, pour it into the dish, and serve very hot. Garnish your dish Avitli lemon. 176 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 82. Eel Fie. Skin and clean the eels ; cut them in pieces about two inches in length ; pass them with chopped parsley and shallots, a little grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, and lemon-juice, for five minutes ; then lay a little light forcemeat at the bottom of a deep dish ; put the eels over it ; cover it with puff paste; bake it, and put into it either Bechamel sauce (p. 327) or brown gravy. 83. Larded Eel. Lard an eel along the back with small pieces of bacon ; roll, and tie it up ; put it into a pan with a cooked marinade. AVhen it has lain some time in this, cover it with bread- crumbs and bake it. 84. Matelote of Eels. Skin a 2^oi^^ii<^^ '^^d ^ l^'^^lf of eels, and cut them into pieces two inches in length. When well washed, put them m a stew-pan with a tablespoonful of batter; fry them for two minutes ; add a glassful of red wine, a third of a pinch of nutmeg, half a pinch of salt, and a third of a pinch of pepper ; also a faggot of herbs, a glassful of fish stock, or white broth, and three tablespoonfuls of mushroom liquor. Add six small glazed onions, and six mushroom buttons. Cook for thirty minutes, then put in a tablespoonful of brown gravy ; stir well while cooking two minutes longer, and serve with six fried pieces of bread garnished with onion sauce (p. 339). I do not know an English synonym for " matelote," but Mrs. Cook can pronounce the word, even as she can pronounce " puree." Still, there is no rule without an exception. "We once had a cook who always called a " puree " a " pleurey." FISH. Ill 85. Entree of Eels. Take two large eels, bone them, and lay them flat ; put light forcemeat, well seasoned, upon each ; roll them up separately ; bind them round with tape ; put them in a stew- pan with a gill of sherry, one clove of garlic, half a bay-leaf, four peeled shallots, a little thyme, and a pint of veal broth. Let them stew till done, then strain the liquor, skim it free from fat, season to the palate, thicken with flour and butter, reducmg it to half a pint ; put the eels into a deep dish, glaze the tops, and serve them up Avith the sauce under, and pieces of fried bread round the dish. Once for all, " The Thorough Good Cook " is written for abstainers as well as non-abstainers. In culinary matters I am Catholic. If you object to alcohol in your cookery, leave it Old. Exactly the same observation will apply to garlic. Many English ladies have an absolute abhorrence of garlic (one of the four pillars of cookery — the others being the lemon, the anchovy, and the egg) in consequence of its. offensive odour. But garlic, cooked, is wholly inoftensive. 86. Another Entree of Eels. Skin and cleanse your eels, bone them, and cut them into- pieces about a finger in length ; pass them over a slow fire in a small quantity of sweet herbs, shallots, pepper, salt, butter, and lemon-juice. When they are three-parts done, put them on a dish ; dip each piece in the liquor ; bread-crumb them, and broil over a clear fire. Serve with anchovy sauce. 87. Broiled Eels. Skin and cleanse your eels, rub them with the yolk of an Qgg; strew bread-crumbs over them, chopped parsley, M 178 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. sage, pepper, and salt. Baste tliem well "with butter, and put them in a dripping-pan. Roast or broil them, and serve them up with parsley and butter. 88. Broiled Eels a I'ltalienne. If for an entree, choose two moderate-sized eels, take off the skin, wash, bone and dry them thoroughly ; toss them in an egg beaten wp with pepper and salt; then fry them of a good brown colour. Serve with a good Italian sauce under them. 89. To Spitchcock Eels. Having skinned, gutted, and washed your eels, dry them with a cloth. Sprinkle them Avith pepper, salt, and a little dried sage ; turn them backwards, and skewer them. Rub your gridiron with beef suet, broil them of a good brown ; put them on your dish with melted butter, and garnish with fried parsley. 90. Another way to Spitchcock Eels. Skin, slit up the eel, and bone it ; wash and dry it, cut it in pieces three or four inches long; dredge these with flour, which is to be wiped off so as to leave all dry. Dip the pieces in a thick batter made of melted butter, yolk of eggs, minced parsley, sage, shallot (very little shallot), pepper, and salt. Roll them next in fine breiid-crnmbs. Dip them in the batter ao-ain, and roll them asfain in the bread-crumbs. The pieces may now, to justify the name of spitchcock, be impaled on small spits

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.