Eel meat again

Once a sought-after delicacy, a miraculous remedy and even a way rural Britain paid the rent–is there anything the eel couldn’t do

- Jeremy Hobson

DOMESDAY records have it that, in 1086, more than half a million eels were offered as annual rent in various places around England. The villagers of Harmston in Lincolnshire paid their landlord 75,000 eels per annum. The inhabitants of Stratford-upon-Avon sent 1,000 to the Bishop of Worcester in return for allowing them use of his mill in order to grind their corn. A century later, the monks of Ramsey Abbey in Huntingdonshire gave their neighbouring landowner a similar rent in return for being allowed to traverse back and forth across his property.

Now, lest you imagine such payment was in live eels—and what a slippery transaction that would be—let me explain that it wasn’t. The eels (for culinary use) were, instead, caught, collected and delivered dead, preserved with salt.

As for how the fish was taken, ‘clotting’, ‘babbing’ or ‘jigging’ for eels with a homemade rod and length of wool was, for many years, a popular pastime for many country people. Visit any rural museum and it’s a pretty safe bet that somewhere among the exhibits, there will be some piece of equipment used traditionally to catch eels in Britain’s waterways. Examples of hand-forged 19th-century eel spears or ‘gleaves’ abound and, on some rivers, such as at Leckford on the River Test, it’s possible to see eel traps still in use.