I saw on the news about limiting the elver harvest in Maine. I noted methods of harvest are limited to dip nets, Fyke nets and Sheldon eel traps. I can easily find examples of the first two, but I’ve not been able to find exactly what a Sheldon eel trap is or what it looks like and how it operates.
Anyone here at the great Straight Dope know?
It’s “two window screens and a box”, says the inventor (and eel poacher)
40-A. Sheldon eel trap. “Sheldon eel trap” means a box trap with a netted wing 10 feet or less in length used to intercept and direct elvers into the trap.
Supposedly invented & patented by one Bill Sheldon (that’s him on the left)
but I’ve been unable to find any such patent at USPTO.gov.
There’s a 1974 paper/booklet with the original description:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/37903
Having tried eel sashimi, I would suggest that Mr Sheldon be imprisoned for life.
Who eats this fish?
(ETA, I am aware the Brits do, or at least used to, but I am also not a big fan of British cuisine. However I am still eager to make what used to be a staple of low paid workers on their holidays to the coast, oyster and stout pie)
I think I remember reading once that eel is often substituted for scallops, without telling the consumer. Maybe in restaurants?
Scallops are rare enough here that they are sold in shell, horribly expensive, but you can tell if your scallop is attached to the shell.
I imagine a “scallop pasta” where the shell is not obvious, could be easily adulterated. But why eel?
Wouldn’t the shape, flavor, and texture give it away?
Grilled eel is delicious!
Now I’m looking around online trying to check this. I’m finding lots of references to imitations being pawned off as scallop, but the imitations being cookie-cutter bits of skate or other fish. Haven’t found eel. So, I’m not sure about this one.
Ew, no. Freshwater eel should be hot smoked, at least, if not grilled. Not as sashimi - that shit’s poisonous.
The texture and flavor of eel in no way matches scallops.
Unagi is a real treat.
I’m fairly sure it was salt water eel, but it was in a fancy sushi restaurant where I imagine they don’t want to kill their customers.
I ate raw quails eggs there on makimono, and a bunch of other really exotic stuff to me. And I have have worked as a sushi waiter in a place where (somewhat illegally) a table ordered the berries (aka raw eggs) as well as the parent giant Mozambique crayfish, I gave those a try, albeit on the leftovers from their plates once I took them to the kitchen. Not worth it.
Eels have never been a culinary interest of mine, though I am more than willing to eat all sorts of weird things.
(Kyoto Garden Sushi on Kloof Nek. Not sure if it still happens but the owner ground fresh wasabi root for my date and I, instead of the insipid green paste made from horse-radish)
Eel fans may enjoy this video of a specialty restaurant preparing food for the day.
Apparently if cooked in a certain way they seem ‘meaty’, so were used to get round the Catholic injunction against eating meat on Fridays?
There’s ‘Eel Pie Island’ in the Thames estuary, where the Rolling Stones got their start.
And I remember as a child we went to seaside resorts in the UK, and there would be this stuff called ‘jellied eels’ for sale. Looked grey, nasty and slimy!
I don’t think I have ever actually eaten any eel, though…
Unagi is freshwater eel, typically grilled and sauced with a sweet sauce. Sea eel is anago and is prepared differently than unagi (tempura-fried or simmered to use as a nigirizushi topping).
Canned eel is readily available at Asian grocers. It’s ok for maybe a sushi roll but not a can I pick up for eating straight. I like the texture, sort of firm flakey but it’s sauced in a way I don’t care for but it’s not bad and worth trying.
The grilled version, unagi, as nigiri I’ve always found to be a hit with people who are skittish about the raw options. It probably was my introduction to sushi. It’s tasty stuff and there’s not really anything objectionable about it to me.
Amy Farrah Fowler.