When I was a kid (in the south of Germany) we occasionally had smoked eel for dinner and I really liked it. I don't remember it having a strange taste or texture, but perhaps my father picked the bones out for me. I know that my grandfather considered eels a delicacy and he told me that once, as a boy, he and some friends were messing around in a murky riverbed. Something slithered across his feet and he got all excited, thinking it was an eel. He grabbed it and pulled it out of the water, triumphantly showing it off to his friends - only to find a snake wrapping itstelf around his arm. He was not sure who panicked more, he, the snake, or his friends. No one was harmed, but apparently the memory put him off eels. 😄
Considering that we have like 1 type of venomous snake that can't kill anyone and is scared shitless of anything that moves I vote for the poor snake that just got yanked out of the water by what it probably thought was a tree.
@@majorfallacy5926 If it was in the water it was probably a grass snake (Ringelnatter), they are completely harmless to humans. Adders aren't semi-aquatic. "South of Germany" is vague enough that it could also be one of the regions were you can still find other rarer snake species than the usual three. But even then... The dice snake (Würfelnatter) is also semi-aquatic, but non-venomous. And the only other venomous species, next to the adder, you could find in Germany (Aspisviper - Vipera aspis) isn't usually in the water either.
Different eels apparently have different toxicity. Here in southeast Asia, common eels aren't toxic at all. But species like Japanese eels (Unagi) are.
Fun fact, Eels can become very old. In Sweden an exceptionally old Eel called The Brantevik Eel had lived in a well for 155 years. You see, in Sweden (and probably other parts of the world too) people would put live eels in wells to keep the water clean from bugs, algae and other creatures because the eel would eat them.
I think it's because they can't mature by going to the sea so they stay juvenile. Eels have 3 life stages. The last stage they lose their entire digestive tract and swim in the sea for 150+ days from Europe to spawn near america
@@sevenproxies4255 😂👍 Seriously, though, it's a joke from one of Terry Pratchett's books (and he was a man who was an absolute sponge for historical facts), that wells in England would have newts in them for the same purpose as eels in Sweden-they keep the water clean of bacteria and algae, and if they're alive, then the water is probably safe. But he had a little laugh with the idea that the buggers are still pooing in the water.
To add: During lean years in the spring time it was not uncommon for people to spend 90% of their income on food, and the food they get is all preserves. So people eating cheap food or fasting during lent was sometimes involuntary and sometimes to save money for their families.
Well Lent falls in the hungry time, for an agricultural community. That's when the dried and preserved foods are running low, and the new crops aren't yet ready.
The prohibition on eggs and milk and such was also to ensure that the animals could rear their own young, allowing them to be born & fed. (Chicks and ducklings and goslings, calfs getting their milk instead of the farmers, etc.) This literally ensured the farm would have plenty of animals around for eating much later in the year. Pairing it with a religiously significant observance embedded the habit into the highly agrarian cultures of the day, preventing people from gorging themselves *now* only to find themselves starving *later.*
I remember my history teacher made a booklet on every monarch since William the Conqueror and described Henry I’s death as being due to “a surfeit of lampreys” - we were all 11ish at the time and had no idea what that meant but it was so weird I googled it and always remember it!
I ate eel once in a pub or restaurant somewhere near Cutty Sark when visiting London. I like to try different food abroad and it was said to be traditional food so I had to try it. Eel was served in a sauce so it affected the flavour but I remember it tasting quite similar to other fish. However it did have lots of bones and you had to be careful while eating. The meal also had some kind of small pie and smashed potatoes. Overall it was a very good and fulfilling meal, would gladly eat it again. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the restaurant (Edit. it was Goddards). I never knew eels were so important in medieval times so this was very interesting video!
Please don't eat eels. The european eel is critically endangered and heading towards extinction (down 98% since the 1980s). They are still sold because fishing lobbies are stronger than people willing to fight for the humble eel. Eels have a complicated life cycle and have never been bred in captivity. Eel fisheries operate by capturing and raising wild baby eels. Once the wild population is gone there will be no more european eels. American and Japanese eels are also endangered. If you wouldn't eat rhino, don't eat eel.
@@nigden1 Actually there are still dozens of "Pie and Mash" shops (incorporating Eels). They are mainly in East and South East London, but there are several further afield...but all within touching distance of London. I eat this once a week but not often Eels...although I DO love them :):)
@@michaellovell1368 Oh, right, I'm not from London, but saw it somewhere that there were only two, so thanks for that. I'm glad though, I've had pie mash and eels and love it.
@@nigden1I understood the liquor was made from the liquid that had been used to boil the eels. Nowadays I think it's plain parsley sauce, but I am sure there must be places in London that sell pie and mash, and also eels, who still use the eel stock to make liquor.
Eels are not too popular here in the US but luckily I can manage to catch a few in the Delaware River. Lightly brined and smoked over beech wood they are the best, especially with a bit of creamed horseradish!
In the Netherlands smoked eels are still a commonly eaten delicacy. Fishing is now highly regulated as they are highly endangered, making the eels very expensive.
I ate smoked eal quite often back before they got endangerad (traditional swedish delicasy). As long as the eal was of decent size, you can just break of long pieces of filets. I wouldn't say it has any wierd taste, no more different than compared to any other two fishes. It is very, very fatty, though.
It's awesome to see a RU-vidr who is so authentic and doesn't want to mislead his viewers. I really appreciate your content man. It's real and honest. And also solid. Solidarity brother 🤜🤝🤛
My grandmother was a rather creative cook. She always said growing up in the depression helped. Any what, she used to make an Eel Pie. I might have been the only kid brave enough to try it, but it was pretty amazing actually.
In a Japanese restaurant you may find unagi, which is freshwater eel. Usually grilled with a sweet savory sauce. Served over rice, it’s as an unagi don.
Eels, along with other fish, were put in the category of vegetable during times and places of the Middle Ages. This made fish eatable during lent and other fasts.
When I was a kid and we learned about vegetarians, we were told they can eat fish and poultry, so I think that idea stuck around at least until the 20th century.
@@YamiKisara Sure. I am a vegetarian, and have been for years. I follow a diet described as vegan, though I am not (vegan is a lifestyle avoiding as far as possible, any products that bring harm to animals. I wear leather shoes.) But there is a tradition of assuming vegetarians are "vegan light" if you will. And that eggs, dairy, and fish are allowed. Typically called ovo-lacto-vegetarians, and/or pescatarians, the main exclusion is the flesh of mammals. I agree that some part of this categorization was born centuries before in these religious practices.
That’s fascinating! How eels could be so important to all facets of a countries past. And how they could have been so plentiful as to be sold in those quantities. I’m in the US and eels aren’t popular here either, so like you, I’ve never had them. I can’t imagine I would like them from your description. Lol! ❤️🤗🐝
They used to be popular during the colonial times. In fact, so much that it led to areas fully being cleared of their populations. On some rivers you can still see the structures build to corral them into traps.
I'm also from the United States, and the only time I've eaten eel was when I went out one night with a large group of people my ex-husband went to high school with to eat sushi at a very high end restaurant in Santa Barbara, California where a number of the people I was with knew someone that worked there, and were able to get a large amount removed from the final bill. I drank a lot of Sake that night, so while I remember that we supposedly ate eel, I can't remember anything about it's taste, texture, and so on.
@@laurenmclain6378 eel in sushi is pretty good and inoffensive. It tends to be thin and cooked over a kind of fire. It's also paired with things that work together. Maybe dried eel wouldn't be so bad.
I'm Dutch and eels are still popular in my family. My great grandfather and many of his forefathers were fisherman in the Zuiderzee fishing for eels until the whole sea was dammed in and Flevoland was created. Good smoked eel is very tasty, albeit very fatty, and basically falls right off the bones. Very expensive nowadays however.
Sainsburys sell jellied eels, remove the jelly put red pepper and vinegar on them, you could use black pepper but red is traditional, don't put the chunks in your mouth whole, pick them up and remove the meat from the backbone with your teeth, they're normally served with a large chunk of crusty bread.
I had beautifully prepared eels at a fine Italian restaurant in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. We went specifically for eels at the request of an elderly immigrant grandmother. Delicious! Flaky. Not chewy.
I have never had eels, but my husband grew up in The Netherlands, and they had smoked eels. A vendor would come around with a box full of eels, attached to a bicycle. They were live, and he would buy them for his mother to cook.
As a young lad I used to go out on certain nights - moon state was important - with the local not-quite-legal hunting chap to catch eels on the Exe. He'd catch then on a long ash pole with a large worm on the end - the worm haveing been force-fed (with a darning needle) a thick piece of worsted thread. When they bit he would flcik them over his shoulder and 8 times out of 10 drop them straight into a large bucket. When the missed, I'd catch them and chuck them in. Very slimy!
Im from New Zealand and Grew up in an Eeling family as in my Grandad and Great uncle and my Uncle and soemtimes Mum and Dad would catch fresh water eels for a living i love eel so much we mostly eat it smoked it is great
The chain, as a unit of measurement is still used today in at least in wildland fire fighting. As in "you want to mop up at least one chain off the dozer line." I think it's sixty eight feet long, but I'm sure I'm wrong. It was more common to use it in the nineteenth century than in the modern era.
My late father used to eat Eels. At our local market, in the East End, there was a Pie and Mash shop, i remember as a small child, aged around 6/7 years old, outside the shop they had a stall with 3 big metel trays where live Eels were kept. You could choose which Eel you wanted, and the man used to chop it up in front of you, put the chopped up Eel in a big cup with jelly. I don't think you would get away with that today. I used to think as a child how horrible it was. The block, he chopped them on was all bloody. This was in the 70s, i never liked watching it. Thank god, this practice has long since gone.
in my country, salmon was the food of the peasants and widely available in rivers and lakes. Industrialization, with Dams disrupted their migration and spawning, then overfishing depleted the populations in the lakes and the sea. These days catching wild salmon is outlawed so people eat the farmed Norwegian soy fed variety. Lampreys are a seasonal delicacy but most people don't seem to like them ;the meat has a very strong flavor.
Smoked eel used to be a mainstay of holiday food where I live in southern Sweden. But due to overfishing and regulations it's so horribly expensive nowadays that you're lucky if you can get any for christmas. I personally love the taste.
Eels are one of my favorite food on sushi for example or just smoked, grilled or fried. But beware of the smoked kind they are so oily that they give me uncontrollable digestive issues if I eat more then a few bites
I have eaten eels with old fishermen from Lough Neagh. They were cooked in a pan with a little butter and finished by having a good quantity of poteen or white vinegar as they called it added at the end. It was a rubbery flesh and oily.
Hi, country guy here. Eels are now very rare in the UK. I fished for many years and from catching 5 to 10 eels in a session I would catch one maybe every 4 sessions. I always returned them. In 70 years I only saw 1 lamprey.
I remember having eels as a kid, freshly caught from the sea (I believe they’re prohibited to catch now as endangered). They used to freak me out as the filleted and segmented parts would batter themselves as the nerves in them twitched. They were delicious though!
I live in Western Australia, where we have about fifteen species of saltwater and freshwater eels. The most extreme is the moray eel, which is a saltwater species and quite aggressive, yet still very fast id you can land one. The rest are stream, lake and river borne, easy to catch and delicious. Unadon is a very popular Japanese dish here. We had some person got badly mauled by a moray eel at Cottesloe Beach a while back. Interesting, in that particular beach also hosted a few fatal shark attacks in recent times.
I have eaten eel several in various countries: When I went to Valencia I went to the inland salt lake the Albufera which has a local cuisine where eels are used as they are trapped (using traps similar to the medieval eel bucks). There is a dish called "all i pebre" (garlic and pepper) which is a mix of eels with potato in a sauce made from, obviously, garlic and pepper. In Japan it is common to see eel (unagi) on sushi (on nigris), mixed with rice as unadon often served with teriyaki sauce. I also went to one of the last surviving East End cafeterias that sell jellied eels and had jellied eels there, from memory they also sold them in a flavoured stew as well. Personally I find them delicious but I think, perhaps, it depends a great deal on how well they are cooked and also the extent to which you like the taste of fish. They have a very strong piscine flavour - like concentrated trout - that is probably not to everyone's taste, but certainly any lover of seafood should try them.
Unagi, or eel is a Japanese sushi. It's most often served in a sweetened soy glaze, and it's absolutely delicious, if somewhat of an acquired texture/taste. My ex worked selling eel as a boy at the Fultion fish market in NY, and at the time (early 50s?) it seems that eel was a very popular fish. He described killing the live eels by throwing them in a water filled box, and turning on the switch to electrocute them. They are also notoriously hard to skin. They would have to nail the head to a board and then peel the skin off with pliers (?) until the skins were inside out.
My family is mostly from the East End of London and my Nan used to *love* Jellied Eels, they were a treat for her and she'd always be happy to get some. To me they looked horrible, like some kind of weird mush in a cup but she loved 'em.
Ever since watching "A knight's tale", I've wondered what Creamed eel-pie actually taste like. It sounds kind of nice, yet kind of disgusting at the same time
In the Netherlands, where I'm from, it's not a super strange food to eat. I think it may have lost popularity over the past 40 or 50 years but I think many people will have had them at their grandparents. Still though walking by rivers you can occasionally see traps.
Got to eat quite a bit of eel while stationed in Japan. It was one of the favorite things I ate over there. Grilled eel and Unagi rolls were always delicious.
Eels (both freshwater and salt-water species) are still eaten regularly in Asia. Go to any Japanese restaurant and they will usually have Anago (salt-water) and Unagi (freshwater) sushi. A little less common outside of Asia, but possible to get is Liangxi (or Wuxi) which is crispy fried eels.
Near Newport, Essex there used to be archeological digs every year. There were thousands of oyster shells everywhere. It was quite a long way from the coast, and oysters don't have a long shelf life, so it's a mystery to me how they were so popular. They probably ate eels too, but there's no evidence for that.
Look into skirret. It's a plant that was widely eaten during the medieval and previous periods that went out of favour when potatoes came over from the Americas. I'm currently trying to grow some...
Could red meat have been seen as "lusty" because people were anemic? Loss of libido is a symptom of anemia. What other foods would have added iron to medieval peasant diets?
Eggs, seafood, saltwater fish, spinach, peas (which they ate a lot of), kale, wild edibles (which, again, they would've eaten quite a lot of), whole wheat and rye bread (their old varieties would be much richer in minerals than modern ones), strawberries (those tiny forest ones are native to Europe), raisins, figs, dates, dried fruit such as apricots and plums, lentils, nuts, ... there's really not much reason to believe medieval peasants were anemic.
Hi Jason! First of all nice video! As always. I'm from Saxony Germany and there you can buy smoked eel at some places. I find it quite tasty in this form.😋
I lived in Japan and ate eels.( called UNAGI) Never thought I would but they are served with rice and are also a delicacy there ,due to the storage of them and the fact that many steams are polluted. They are cooked with a sauce similar with teriyaki Sause( sweet) the bones are removed , then grilled and served atop of a bed of rice.
I can't speak about eels from the UK, but I am very fond of eels in Japanese cuisine - both unagi (fresh water) and anago (salt water). Both are used in sushi and unadon - unagi served over rice with sauce - is particularly tasty. Also, I couldn't help but notice how pretty the borage was in this video.
They actually, to my understanding, spawn in the sea and make their way all the way upriver before getting bigger! They start as glass eels, which are tiny and see-through, so I can see why people would think they spawned in the river. It actually makes me sad to hear they were eaten so frequently, seeing that they can live for up to 80 years! Also EVERY EEL in the world spawns in the same place -- the sargaussian sea, which is a sea...in the ocean. Learned all that from The Book of Eels; highly recommend. I just hope my ancestors had respect for the creatures they were eating, like Salish folks respect salmon.
I did try jellied eels when I was staying in London. You referred to "a number of small bones"... you might be underestimating the size of an adult eel's vertebrae. A spiky piece of bone which is a challenging mouthful. the meat is tough and the bone is sharp. I'm old enough to remember when elvers were a popular (and very affordable) dish in the UK. I live in Gloucestershire and the Severn is one of the main spawning grounds for eels. Most of us would keep enameled buckets used for no other purpose than to take out when we heard the cry "ELVERS, LIVE ELVERS!". The price was just a few pence for a pint measure of writhing live elvers. They'd be kept in the bucket of water until it was time to cook them. These baby eels were too immature to have a spine to speak of and were, as I recall, absolutely delicious. This continued even into the 1970s when, sadly, the Chinese discovered them and were willing to pay high prices... way beyond the average person's pocket today.
In the Netherlands, smoked eel on bread or a snack cracker were often eaten at parties. However, they've practically died out. We're trying to restore the populace by importing baby eels and releasing them. Or releasing intercepted illegally imported/ transported eels into the wild. It's strange, because I can remember smoked eel being sold at the supermarket when I was a kid and then for a time, even specialty fish shops didn't have them.
We eat eels in Australia too, when available. I like them skinned, gutted and cut into 6 inch sections, then egg & breadcrumbed and fried in butter. A sharp herb sauce (or the ubiquitous tomato sauce) is very nice with them. I don't bone them, as the meat is easily sucked or peeled off the bones. I have done fillets of smoked eel braised very gently in a herb sauce and that's nice but not as good as crumbed and fried. The bones make a good stock, which can be used to make a very nice eel risotto. Our eels come from the lakes of western Victoria, where they have been harvested and eaten for millennia. The eel traps of the Hopkins River near Warrnambool are a major historical monument and worth checking out either online or in person. The full extent of these was only discovered recently (by europeans, that is) and they cover a LOT of ground.
I'm Dutch and eels are still common in the area. They would be smoked and you could find them in grocery stores. Interesting texture though like you said. I couldn't say I enjoy it. I tolerate it but the taste is great. It's nice with beer.
Unadon is a pretty common item in Japanese restaurants here, its served with all the bones picked out. It's actually one of my favorite foods. I've never had it european style however. also that adorable bumble bee 2:25
I had eel at a japanese restaurant in london and it was soft melt in your mouth texture and tasted like a marinated chicken. no bones no chewiness. absolutely divine.
I heard about Henry 1 and his lampreys on Horrible Histories a few years ago, one of the Stupid Deaths!😅 I vaguely remember one of the other early kings dying of too much fruit, you can imagine how Death chortled at those😂
In north Germany, smoked eel is a bit of a delicacy. I've had it - reminiscent of smoked mackerel, but maybe a little chewier. And there's not a lot of meat on a single eel, as I recall. (Long time ago.) There's also a famous English ballad called Lord Randall. where he is poisoned by a meal of "eels and eel broth" given to him by his sweetheart. He goes home to his mother to die.
I did have the meat pie, mash and boiled eel at Goddard’s in Greenwich! Certainly a very fishy flavor… but a white fish texture and the bones in the center were interesting to eat around. I would certainly try it again though! One of those foods you can really connect to the past with! Cheers 🍻
I can only recommend you try eel, it's very fatty but also very tasty (especially smoked eel on bread). However, the European Eel is also endangered due to loss of habitat and overfishing, so make sure to stick to sustainable sources. Small fisheries and smoking huts should be okay, they usually don't impact the population too badly, but it's propably best to eat eel rarely. When I was in school, my class went on a boating trip (paddle boats) in the German equivalent of the Lake district, the Brandenburg and Mecklenburg Seenplatte. One day, while navigating a maze of small channels and tiny islands, by chance we came across a fish smokery, which could only be reached by small paddle boats (the surrounding area is off-limits to motorized boats). We took a break and got breat with smoked fish. It was very, very good, and I remember most of the trip and especially the little smoking hut on the tiny island very fondly.
Hi Jason, a short 5 min clip of you cooking/eating some dried or frozen eels would have accompanied this video nicely? Esp for a majestic jigh quality channel like your. Can you please taste test and post an eel cooking video too? Thankyou sir
About eels being currency--I think I recall hearing that tobacco was used the same way, at least in early America. You'd have a warehouse of it that basically functioned like a bank and you'd get a note like a check that was good for so many units of tobacco--for use or trade. I wish I remember where I learned that information. I don't.
Have eaten a lot of smoked eels here in Sweden all of my life, until pretty recently when they have almost gone extinct and are now rarely available and completely red listed… In my family they have always been a traditional and much appreciated dish on the Christmas table. Eel, especially when smoked, is very tasty and nutritious with superb fat and great protein in them, and usually not many noticeable bones at all once they have been smoked. - If you get a chance, do try it in a small quantity but don’t overeat since we need to preserve the species!
I do actually enjoy jellied eels with pepper and vinegar. They have one bone that runs down the middle (the spine) with smaller bones radiating off that. You can easily eat the meat off the bones without them becoming detached. I've never eaten an eel that is chewy so I'm not sure where that description comes from. The flesh is meaty but tender with an almost creamy backnote. You really should try them. They are sold at most of the seafood stalls along our coastlines. I live in Norfolk and can get them at many places 🙂
Here in 🇳🇱The Netherlands smoked eels (gerookte paling) are still sold (even in our local supermarkets) & eaten often as a delicacy. They are delicious👌🏼😋. Though seeing a bucket filled with live eels gives me the heebie-jeebies 😟😅
As an American, my eel experience is from Japanese cuisine. Unagi is Japanese grilled eel. Really good and probably similar to foods most Westerners are used to vs jellied or pickled eel
Smoked salmon that is then canned is a wonderful food to pressure can in Alaska or other northern states to have to eat through the winter and spring. The pressure dissolves or softens the bones so much that they aren’t a bother. I wonder if doing the same to eel would have the same effect, so you wouldn’t have to worry about picking out the bones. I would probably prefer smoking beforehand though, but mainly just because I like the taste of smoked fish.
Eels are popular in Asian cuisine, and can be purchased, pre-cooked, in any decent East Asian supermarket. They are boned, cooked in a savory sauce, and very, delicious.
