🇬🇧 How to Make Jellied Eels

Craving Jellied Eels? On FoodNeverComes the food never actually comes — so here's how to make real Jellied Eels at home, in about 1 hr + setting, with stuff you probably already have.

🛒 Ingredients

Tap ingredients to tick them off as you shop or cook ✔️

• 1kg fresh eels, cleaned and cut into 3cm rounds
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 3 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 litre water
• 1 tsp salt
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• optional: 1 sheet gelatine, only if the eels are lean
• crusty bread and chilli vinegar, to serve

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Ask the fishmonger to clean and cut the eels. It is an unpleasant job and they are quicker at it.
2. Simmer the eel pieces very gently with the onion, bay, peppercorns, vinegar, water and salt for 25 minutes. A hard boil breaks the flesh off the bone and clouds the liquor, and the clarity of the set is half the dish.
3. Lift the eel out and pack it into a bowl or individual pots with the parsley.
4. Strain the cooking liquor through muslin and taste it — it should be sharp with the vinegar and well salted, because cold food tastes blander than hot.
5. Eels are rich in natural gelatine and the liquor normally sets on its own. If it does not after a few hours, melt a softened gelatine sheet into the warm liquor before chilling.
6. Pour over the eel and refrigerate overnight until firm. Serve cold, straight from the pot, with white pepper and chilli vinegar.
7. A proper East End dish from when the Thames was full of eels and this was cheap food for dock workers. There are still pie and mash shops in London serving it and they have earned their customers.