Eel Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Skim and trim the eels, removing heads, tails, and fins.
Stew the trimmings in 1 cup of white broth to make gravy.
Cut the eels into 3-inch pieces and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Add 1 cup of the gravy to the eels and mix well.
Assemble and bake
Prepare a light pastry and do not line the sides of the dish.
Place the eel mixture in the dish and cover with the pastry.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Eels
- Provide the main body of the pie, becoming tender during baking and giving it its distinctive flavour.
- White broth
- Forms the gravy that moistens the eels and keeps the filling from drying out in the oven.
- Light pastry
- Covers the filling to trap steam and moisture, cooking into a crust over the eels.
The step that matters
Covering the eels with pastry only on top. The pastry lid must seal well so steam and gravy stay in the dish. Because the sides are not lined, the lid carries the whole structure, so it must be placed carefully over the filling.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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