SC - swans, eel and peacocks, oh

[Philip W. Troy]

Hi.  Duncan asks:

>In truth, I'm not sure where they obtained the eels, but they arrived
>frozen. At one of the precooks, we thawed, skinned, and gutted twenty or
>thirty eels. The thing that stuck with me the most was the pungent aroma of
>eel blood - a sickly-sweet odor that was so appalling I couldn't even
>approach the eel stew without remembering it. Needless to say, I can't
>really comment on how they were cooked, since I stayed as far from them as
>possible. I remember that they had buckets of the stuff left over after the
>feast, too. (Katerine - do you remember how they were cooked?)

That was Vinnie's feast, and I was ill during that period, and didn't
participate.  I do know that the dish was essentially stewed eel in
a broth with fruit, and was chosen precisely to overwhelm most of the
eel flavor, so that the more timid would not find it too offputting.
(I think that was a bad choice: the reason one sees so many eel recipes
is that they tasted good.  If you're going to serve it at all, it
seems to me one should go for a typical recipe.)  As I recall, they didn't
have enough to test it beforehand with eel -- another thing I would do
differently.  But these were largely the autocrat's decisions, not the
cook's.

Cheers,

- -- Katerine/Terry