388 PROSE HALIEUTICS. 



cient receipt says : ' Skin, gut, and cut them into por- 

 tions ; wrap in laurel leaves, roast, and serve in bread- 

 crumbs.' Apicius gives two elaborate sauces to eat with 

 eels. The first account we have of eel pie occurs in Pla- 

 tina, a comparatively modem writer, who gives the fol- 

 lowing savoury recipe for it. "^ Clean and cut your eel 

 into pieces ; add the milt of another fish, or an equal 

 weight of suet very finely pounded ; some chopped mint 

 and parsley; an ounce of pine-kernels, and the same 

 quantity of nuts and raisins ; season with ginger, cinna- 

 mon, pepper, and cloves; lay all on a crust in a pie-dish ; 

 sprinkle with oil, and bake in a hot oven ; when nearly 

 cooked, have ready two ounces of sweet almonds and 

 safiron bruised together ; pass this mixture through a 

 sieve, and spread it hghtly over the top.' Another com- 

 posite method, from the same author, is : ' Oil a pie-dish, 

 and line it with paste ; prepare the eels very much in the 

 same way as the last, bury them in the paste, and cover 

 with a crust ; when nearly baked, pierce various holes 

 through the upper part, and pour in rose-water sweet- 

 ened with sugar.' ' The floating fat and grease,' he pro- 

 ceeds to teU us, ' skimmed off, and smeared over the head, 

 is sovereign for making the hair grow.'- The following 

 English recipe appears quite equal to Platina's : ' Wash 

 him in water and salt, then peel off his skiu below the 

 vent, and not much further ; take out his guts as clean 

 as you can, but wash him not : then give him three or 

 four scotches with a knife, and put into his belly and 

 these scotches the tips of sweet herbs, as rosemary, sweet 

 marjoram, winter- savory, thyme, and parsley, and an- 

 chovy, with a little nutmeg grated. Your herbs and 

 anchovies must be cut very small, and mixed with good 

 butter and salt. Then pull his skin over him aU but 

 his head, which you are to cut off; you may tie his skin 

 about the part where his head grew, so as to keep all his 

 moisture within his skin ; fasten him with packthread to 



