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Collared Eels
(Germany.) Clean and split and bone one large eel, dust it with salt and pepper and set aside. Chop 3 hard-boiled eggs, 1 beet, a tablespoonful of capers, 2 pickles, 1 onion, and 3 anchovies, with salt and parsley. Cover the eels with this, tie in a cloth, and cook for 1/2 hour in half water and half vinegar and a bayleaf. Drain, untie, and put in a mould with sufficient melted aspic jelly and turn out on a dish, with mayonnaise, when cold.
A cold rolled eel in the north German style, closer to a charcuterie preparation than a hot fish course. The hinge is the roll: unless the stuffed fillet is tied tightly and evenly in cloth, it collapses in the poaching liquid and there is nothing to slice.
- "Collared" means rolledTo collar a fish is to bone it, spread the flesh flat, cover it with a filling, roll it lengthwise into a cylinder and bind it. The instruction to "tie in a cloth" means wrapping the roll in muslin or cheesecloth and tying both ends and the middle with string, like a bolster.
- Buying the eelAsk the fishmonger to kill, skin and bone it; eel skin is tough and the fish is difficult to handle fresh. European eel is now severely depleted and trade in it is restricted under CITES, so buy farmed eel from a supplier who can tell you the species and source. One large eel means roughly 2-2 1/2 lb whole.
- Eel bloodRaw eel serum contains a protein toxin that irritates skin and eyes and is dangerous if swallowed in quantity. It is destroyed by heat, so the finished dish is harmless, but rinse the boned fillet well, keep the raw blood away from cuts and eyes, and wash the board and knife before they touch anything else.
- The fillingBeet almost certainly means a cooked beet rather than raw; boil or roast it beforehand. The pickles are probably sour dill or salt cucumbers rather than sweet gherkins. Chop everything fine and drain the beet and capers well, or the moisture will loosen the roll.
- The poaching liquidHalf water, half vinegar is aggressive by modern taste and will bleach and firm the flesh. A mild white wine or cider vinegar will give a gentler result than a harsh distilled one; add the bay leaf, a little salt and a few peppercorns. Keep it at a bare shiver, never a rolling boil, or the roll will burst its cloth.
- TimingHalf an hour suits a thick roll from a large eel. A smaller one is done in 15-20 minutes, when the centre reads 145F. Let it cool in the liquid for 20 minutes before draining, then chill in the cloth so it sets in shape.
- AspicPeriod aspic was usually a clarified, reduced fish or veal stock, set by its own gelatin or helped along with isinglass or gelatine. Powdered gelatin will do the same job: about one envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) per 2 cups of well-flavoured fish stock, sharpened with a little of the strained poaching liquid. Pour it barely warm over the chilled roll, or it will melt the fat in the filling and go cloudy.
- Moulding and turning outA loaf tin or terrine works better than a decorative mould, since the roll is to be sliced. Chill at least 6 hours, dip the mould in hot water for a few seconds, and slice cold with a thin sharp knife into rounds about 1/2 inch thick.
- YieldA 2 lb eel gives six to eight cold plates as a first course, with the mayonnaise served alongside rather than poured over. Eat within two days.
Eel was for centuries one of the great everyday fishes of northern Europe, caught in the Elbe, the Baltic rivers and the Dutch and German coastal waters, and preserved by smoking, pickling or jellying because it is fat enough to keep well and sets its own liquid to a jelly when cooked. Collaring - boning, stuffing, rolling and binding in cloth - is an old British and continental technique applied to eel, salmon, pig's head and breast of veal alike, and it survives in the German Aal in Gelee tradition still sold in Hamburg fish markets. This version is filed simply under Germany, set down in the terse shorthand of a cook who assumed her reader already knew how to bone a fish and clarify an aspic. The chopped beet, capers, pickles and anchovy point at the same sweet-sour, salt-sharp palate that produces rollmops and Heringssalat, and the mayonnaise finish is laid over a much older peasant preservation.