527. Anguilles A L'Hollandaise

Take two small lemons and remove the outer and inner skin as closely as possible, divide them into as many portions as they will separate without disturbing the juice, or if they should be sliced, use either an ivory or a silver knife to divide them, lay them in a stewpan with' one quart and half a pint of water, add a faggot of fresh full leaved parsley, twenty corns of white pepper, a blade of mace, a little cayenne, and a tea-spoonful of salt, let it gradually boil, put it aside and simmer a quarter of an hour, suffer it to get cool, then add from two to three pounds of eels skinned, •cleaned, and cut into equal lengths, boil very gradually a quarter of an hour, take out the eels and serve them with Dutch sauce.

The liquor may be divided into half, and thickened with half a pint of cream, or with flour and butter seasoned with a little additional pepper and salt, and poured over the fish when dished, in the latter case it should be garnished with the lemon peel cut in small dice and laid round the dish in company with the boiled parsley minced.

528. Collared Eels

The eels destined to be dressed as above should be the finest which can be selected: the skin must not be removed, but the bone must be carefully and cleverly extracted. Spread out the fish, and with some finely chopped sage, parsley, and mixed spices, rub the fish well over; then take some broad white tape, bind up the fish tightly; throw a good handful of salt into the water in which it is to be boiled, and a couple of bay leaves. Boil three quarters of an hour, and if the fish be taken out and hung to dry for twelve hours, it will be the better for it when served. Add to the water in which the fish has been boiled a pint of vinegar, a little whole pepper, some knotted marjoram or thyme. This pickle also should, after boiling about twelve minutes, be suffered to stand as long as the eels are recommended to be hung; previous to serving the fish must be unrolled so as to abrase the skin as little as possible, and put them into the pickle. Send up in slices or whole, according to taste; garnish with parsley.

529. Eels Bread Crumbed

Cut your fish, the size as before, dry and flour them and proceed as for other fried fish, dish them on a napkin with fried parsley.

530. Fried Eels

Cut into pieces same length as above, cleaned nicely and well dried; let them be coated with yolk of egg, powdered with bread crumbs; fry them brown; serve with parsley and butter. Garnish with handsome sprigs of parsley.

531. Boiled Eels

Choose the smallest, simmer in a small quantity of water, into which a quantity of parsley has been put. Garnish and serve with same sauce as the last.

582. Eels Stewed

, Procure six or seven large ones, and proceed, after having cut them about three inches in length, as for carp, leaving out the wine until last, add in your sauce some very fine chopped parsley, and a shalot, pour the sauce over the fish.

533. Eels - Stewed

This is a dish frequently made for invalids, and to the taste of many fitted always to appear on the table of an emperor: there are various methods of stewing them, the simplest is always the best, because, without exception, the flavour of the fish is preserved, when, in too many cases, it is wholly destroyed by the number of ingredients employed; indeed the skill of the professed cook is most frequently exerted to give the various esculents, they prepare for the table an opposite taste to that which they naturally possess.

To stew eels they should be cut in pieces about three inches long, and fried until they are about half cooked; they will be then brown: let them get cold, take some good beef gravy, and an onion, parsley, plenty of white pepper, a little salt, some sage chopped very fine, enough only to add to the flavour, a little mace, place the eels in this gravy, and stew until they are tender: two anchovies may be finely chopped and added, with two teaspoonfuls of mustard, already made, some walnut ketchup, and a glass of red wine, serve with sippets of toasted bread. Or after being stewed until tender, a glass of port wine may be added, half a lemon squeezed into it; strain and thicken with butter and flour.

534. Spitchcocked Eels

There are several ways to spitehcock eels. They are either broiled or stewed. To broil them, see that the gridiron is cleaned and rubbed with suet, to prevent the adhesion of the skin of the fish, which which must be suffered to remain on; cut the eels, which should be large, into lengths of six or seven inches, not less, and coat them well with yolk of egg. Pound in a mortar parsley, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and pepper, this should be rubbed over the fish, and they should be broiled a clear brown; serve with melted butter, fish sauce, employed according to palate.