Seafood To Pitchcock Eels

to pitchcock eels.
(from The Virginia House-wife, by Mary Randolph, 1825)

Ingredients:

eels​

pepper​

salt​

dried sage​

beef suet​

melted butter​

fried parsley​

Instructions:

Skin and wash your eels, then dry them with a cloth, sprinkle them with pepper, salt, and a little dried sage, turn them backward and forward, and skewer them; rub a gridiron with beef suet, broil them a nice brown, put them on a dish with good melted butter, and lay around fried parsley.​

What does pitchcock mean?

 

[donna]

This one not for me. But thanks for adding the recipe.

 

[captaindrew]

Pitchcock is the method of preparing them by splitting them down the middle. They are pretty good actually, ate them quite a bit when I was a kid on the Jersey shore. Used to set traps for the and we'd eat the big ones and use the smaller ones for bait for other fish. The old timers really liked them at that time but don't think they're too popular anymore.

 

[donna]

Thanks for definition. Tried to look up but couldn't find it.