Eel Pie Recipe

Here is a recipe from The Cook's Oracle by Dr. William Kitchener, published in 1843, celebrating the amazing popularity of Eel Pie.

Ingredients

• 2 fresh eels from the river Ouse at Ely or the river Thames
• 2 small shallots
• 2 glasses of dry sherry
• 4 oz. butter
• 2 oz. flour
• 1 lemon
• 1 hard boiled egg
• parsley
• nutmeg
• pepper
• salt
• water

Skin and bone the eels, cut them into 2" pieces and chop two small shallots

Pass the shallots in butter for five minutes and then add to them a small faggot of parsley chopped, with nutmeg, pepper, salt and two glasses of sherry.

In the midst of this deposit the eels, add enough water to cover them and set them on the fire to boil.

When boiling point is reached, take out the pieces of eel and arrange them in a pie dish.

In the meantime add to the sauce two ounces of butter kneaded with two ounces of flour, and let them incorporate by stirring over the fire.

Finish the sauce with the juice of a whole lemon, and pour it over the pieces of eel in the pie dish.

Some slices of hard boiled egg may be cunningly arranged on the top, and in it amung the lower strata.

Roof the whole with puff pastry; bake it for an hour. And lo! A pie worthy of Ely and the Fens.

It is a great debated question whether this pie is best hot or cold. It is perfect either way.