Thread by @greenleejw

The holidays are coming up, and I know what you're thinking: how should I cook all these eels? What would medieval people do (WWMPD?)

Well don't fret, friends. I'm here to help! That's right...buckle up for a historic eel cooking thread! #CookingWithEels 1/13

So...one of the most common ways to prepare eels was to salt and smoke them. In the Middle Ages, eels were cold smoked.

Flay them, brine them for a long time, and them smoke them for longer. It took several months to do it right. 2/13

"But I want to eat eel now!"

I hear you. You still have to flay it. Just about every eel recipe for eels starts with: "take eles & fle hem."

The prescribed method is to nail the eel's head to a board, cut the skin just below the head, & then pull it off like a sock. 3/13

You'll still find these instructions in recipe books, though today you'll probably start w/ a dead eel.

Traditionally, though, eels were flayed alive. You'd think they wouldn't like it, but people seemed to think they were ok with it! 4/13

Time was, if you bought your eel from a London street merchant, they'd skin the eel for you. Of course, then they had to find something to do with the skins, and this sometimes led to problems. 5/13

Anyway...once you've shucked your eel, what do you do? You've got several options. London street food vendors often sold them hot, chopped up and cooked w/ butter and garlic.

Not jellied, so much. Jellied eels only became popular in the 19th C. 6/13

You might boil them in a fish stew; this common in monasteries. And you might simply fry them up in a pan with garlic or rosemary, which had the benefit of getting you a bunch of liquid eel fat, which was believed to be a remedy for hearing loss. 7/13

"But what about recipes?" you ask. Well, in 1670 to make a minced eel pie, you might:

Flay the eel
Cut off the flesh, & mince it
Mix w/ minced pear
Season w/ ginger, pepper, cloves, mace, and salt
Add currants, raisins, prunes, dates
Add verjuice, butter, & rose-water
8/13

This is a pretty standard late medieval / early modern way of cooking eels. Many recipes call for raisins and similar fruit, along with lots of spices. And frequently almonds.

Here's a 15th C. recipe for nese bekys, a kind of cake w/ eels. 9/13

You might also use eels as a base for broth, as per this recipe from the 15th C. Liber Cure Cocorum (a rhyming cookbook from Lancashire): 10/13

The Romans ate a savory eel flan, & the dish lasted through the medieval period as a kinda popular Lenten dessert. It was more popular on the Continent than in England, though. 11/13

The fanciest medieval eel recipe was French (quelle surprise). To make "reversed eel" you should:
skinned & deboned the eel
sewn it back together inside out
stuffed with bread crumbs, meats & spices
cook it in red wine.

Kind of a super-fancy eel hot pocket. 12/13

To wrap up this thread, I want to include a more modern take on eels. This is neural net-generated recipe tweeted out several years ago by @JanelleCShane.

Not traditional, but still an instant classic. /fin