Practical household cookery

There are three or four distinct species of fresh-water eels found in this country. The most common of these are the sharp-nosed and the broad-nosed eels, inhabiting and abounding in all fresh-waters throughout Europe, and in short in almost every part of the world except the Arctic regions. The eel will live a long time out of water, and migrate from place to place by crawling overland ; but the strangest part of all iu the construction of this fish is, that it possesses a heart located in its tail. Eels vary in size, some weighing over ten pounds, but usually from one to three. 466. STEWED EELS, ENGLISH STYLE. Eels are generally alive when brought into the kitchen ; it is therefore necessary, on account of their tenacity of life, to know an easy way of killing them ; this is done by merely inserting the point of a sharp instrument into the spine at the back of the head to the depth of an inch, when the eel will become perfectly motionless. Then scour the fish well with freezing salt, in order to remove the slimy mucus attached to the skin ; after which, with a cloth in your left hand take a firm hold of the eel's head, and with the right hand proceed to detach the skin just below the gills with the point of a small kuife. When this is done take hold of the loosened skin with your right hand and force it to slide off the fish ; cut off the head, lay the fish flat on the table, and with the same pointed knife open it from one extremity to the other by pressing the point of the blade against the backbone on both sides ; remove the gut, dec, trim away the fins, clean and wipe thoroughly both halves of the fish after having taken the bone out, then cut the eel into pieces of about three inches long, place them in a stewpan^ with a sliced carrot and onion, a few sprigs of parsley and thyme, a few pepper-corns, four cloves, a blade of mace, and a little salt. Moisten the lot with half a bottle of port wine, cover with a buttered paper and replace the lid on the stewpan ; set this on the stove-fire to stew gently for about twenty minutes ; after which drain, and trim the pieces, keeping their liquor to make the sauce, by melting two ounces of butter into a small stewpan. When this is done add two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir it over the fire with a wooden spoon until it becomes slightly coloured, then moisten gradually with the liquor in which the eels were stewed ; add to it a gill or two of good stock and two glasses of port wine ; stir this sauce over the fire till it boils, when it must be drawn to the comer of the stove, in order to let it throw up gently the scum, which must be skimmed off; then, if necessary, reduce the sauce to its proper consistency, pass it through a tammy into the stewpan containing the pieces of eel, add a few prepared mushroom buttons, a pat of fresh butter, a little blanched and chopped parsley, the juice of a lemon, and a teaspoonful of essence of anchovy ; toss the whole well together over the fire till well mixed and boiling, then dish the eel up, pour the remainder of the sauce over it, garnish round with croutons fried in butter, and serve. 467. EEL XATELOTTE.