We have no idea why UA-cam has decided to show this video in 360p... Expect a HD reupload tomorrow. Until then enjoy this lowres version of 18th century cooking!
Townsends Until you do catch and cook with eel, venison, turkey or any game you are not presenting true period representation. You must also do a video of nixtamal with wood ash. Your period presentations are too cityfied ie. modern urban. Get down in the dirt and mud for an authentic presentation of the content you purport to have knowledge of.
Hello, I am from Germany and we chop the eel in chunks and nibble the flesh away, the eels you have are hot smoked and very expensive, but very tasty and fatty. To skin the smoked eel you loosen the skin ad the neck and strip it backwards in one part (both sides in one), and nibble the flesh from the bone, and afterwards clean your hands with rye-spirit, and drink it of course, it goes with whole grain rye bread and butter the eelskin was tanned and used as shoe laces because it is so durable
Wow, how very different from what I grew up with. As a child, we had a native American woman across the street. She taught my mom how to make succotash. Fresh corn, butter, and lime beans 😋. I'm almost 73, and I still make it in the summer.
Let's hope they'll never allow it to become either highjacked or spoiled by corporate domination (aka a sponsor). Jon already is his own sponsor, tho' so thank goodness for that!
I think this is a big reason why im so confused by the comments saying "you should get your own TV show!" like umm, no they should not... For starters the production value has already increased to near TV levels and its fricken FREE for everyone on UA-cam! With TV comes producers with an agenda and directors making creative decisions with scripts and manufactured drama. On UA-cam he has complete creative control and all ad money goes directly to him. This is the reason UA-cam is so successful, it gives the average person the platform for their own channel! He is exactly where he wants to be! Sorry for the rant its just something that bothers me.
I WAS BORN IN CLINTON, INDIANA IN 1947 AND I DON'T REMEMBER EVER HEARING THE NAME "EEL RIVER. MOVED TO SOUTHERN INDIANA WHEN I WAS 17. I WOULD TRY THIS MEAN. IT LOOKS AMAZING. THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS WITH US.
This channel is like taking a bath in warm cookie dough. Honestly, it's so relaxing. Homely too, and I'm not even American. Stunning visuals, wonderful warm people in them and genuinely delightful content. God bless the lot of you who make these
When I was enlisted and up in Groton, CT, we had a JG who loved eels. I cleaned them and filleted the eels, sautéed them simple with salt and pepper and made some potatoes on the side. He'd get them served up and he was happier than a clam. He made it a goal to be there on my duty days so I would make him eels. Seeing this recipe makes me wish I had know about it then. I'd have made him that dish and smiled while he ate. Thank you for bringing me back a happy memory of eels.
Come on guys and girls John only has $802 supported per month on his Patreon. We can do better than that! This content is great and we should support it more!
Just so awesome to see a real fish funnel. It looks like it has been their for so long. What stories it would sing be the sorrowful or sweet they'd be beautiful.
Adult eels actually live in lakes. They migrate downstream to breed in the deep ocean. They hatch as tiny transparent elvers which make their way to the shore where they hide among the eel grass till their 3 to 4 inches long at which point they make their way upstream to inland waters. Easy mistake to make since the much more respected salmon does it the other way around.
livlaughloaf...Welcome! Historical Interpretation/reenacting is wonderful! Up in West Lafayette is the Feast of the Hunters Moon in October, and down here in central Kentucky the weekend of September 22-24 is the reenactment of the Siege of Fort Boonesborough. It includes goods for sale plus an Indian village and the battle itself.
I recently found out myself and I drive by there about once a week. Stopped in a week ago and got some cook books. Very interesting shop, and the fella working was very helpful. I make my own beer, want to try aging some using their oak kegs.
Eels actually reproduce in the reverse of what you stated. They live in rivers for most of their lives but return to the ocean to breed. For a very long time no one knew exactly where they went but recently it was discovered they migrated to the Sargasso Sea.
Being a Brit I had no idea what Succotash was, apart from as a catchphrase of Sylvester the Cat, so it was really good to find out where the word actually came from. As always, thank you for your wonderfully entertaining programme. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succotash?wprov=sfla1
The natives probably wouldn't have had pepper, but salt is possible. However, what is very likely is that they used various herbs. That would be an interesting topic to pursue: Herbs Native to America.
I grew up playing in the Eel river, we owned a big property that had access to a large portion to the river, it was amazing. Hearing about it in this video takes me back.
Your story about the migration of eels was the wrong way round. They spawn at sea and spend their adult life in the rivers. They're like the opposite of salmon.^^
They spawn at the Sargasso-sea, later they mate in Europe by swimming thrue open channels to get up higher. they even crawl over wet grass on rainy days to get into other waters. There is a faster /better way to get the skin off the half filet by using a spoon, pull the skin and the spoon gets the filet clean off the skin.
Indigenous "Americans" would not have had salt(some did) and peppercorns but they did have different ingredients that were used very similarly Salt was collected from natural sources and ash was used in cooking to add a salty flavor both coltsfoot and saltbush were known for the salty flavor of their ashes. Prior to the arrival/culinary introduction of pepper Natives would have had things like spicebush berries and peppergrass (some areas even pink peppercorns) Juniper and sumac berries were/are used too ( though they are quite different from pepper in flavor) :)
If they are using ashes of plants that are adapted to grow in very salt rich soils (like saltbush), they are still using salt nonetheless, the ashes literally have salt in them.
I believe that some Indian tribes that were in the south west around current day Texas , New Mexico ect actually had a type of pepper that was either black pepper or it had a similar taste as black pepper and it was used as a common part of their diet. If I remember the book that info came from I'll link it.
You could substitute any smoked fish for eel in this recipe and have a nice dish, but if you haven't tried eel, it's worth looking for. Eel is very tasty.
The Delaware is (one of?) the last natural flowing (not dammed, etc) river(s) in the US. They were going to build "The Tock's Island Dam," and actually bought many families' land out from under them (as they did my grandfather in Walpack, NJ), but the project was delayed a few times, then environmentalists opposed it, and in the end, we have the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Sadly, for me, I still think of Poppy's place as "home," yet if I even want to camp there overnight, I now need a special permit from the National Park Service.
i found this channel out of nowhere and this is one of the most relaxing and charming show I've ever seen although i am not an American. Definitely will share your videos on my social media account :)
There are eels in the Great Lakes. I live in Ontario Canada and have seen eels caught in Lake Ontario tributaries. There are eels in Indiana too. Just saw a video of an eel caught in Indiana that was 38 inches long, the guy claims it is a record. Eels are not easy to catch, unless you set out eel traps specifically to catch them. You are not going to catch a random eel just fishing for trout etc. I wouldn't be surprised if there are eels in the Eel River if someone took the trouble to trap them.
Living about 10 minutes from the Eel River, I can attest that the last eel was caught in the 1960's at least purportedly. The river itself is now really bare, relative to what early surveyors and Native peoples' accounts. I would likely chalk that up to river runoff, over fishing, and fairly large damming projects undertaken in the 1960's. They *did* just open a, first in the nation, "fish ladder" there at an old flour mill's dam (the dam was for the water wheel) - so maybe we'll see more fish soon as, it is hoped, the ladder will help migratory, and slower swimming fish, overcome the dam.
The fillets "look a little rough" says the man with the best knife skills I've seen on this channel. Not throwing shade at Jon, just saying. He should be proud of those cuts.
Corn is actually missing a very important amino acid so to survive of corn based diet you need to soak it and potash to create the amino acid through chemical synthesis which makes hominy
I don't believe you would be saying that if you had ever eaten a rodent. Sure, I wouldn't eat one living around people because they eat trash. But rodents are actually among the most delicious things I have had.
Obama Colluded With Putin you can try scrubbing before and after a brine and if you really hate them you can cook it over a fire and burn away anything remaining, that's what I have done hope that helps
Love the channel, wishing there was such a passionate equivalent in the UK. Would be great to see you do a comparison between European and US historical food for a set point in time.
The skins, heads and spines and use them to make a broth. Use that broth as part of the cooking water for the soup. You end up using the entire product and get as much flavor out of it as possible.
A little knob of butter ontop in the bowl would be super. Eel is very good.they have a bit short flavor ,they melt quickly when one ear it,but smoked eel open sandwich is great. Smoked Mackerel or Kippers in the succotash would be good also. Great episode .
In N.J., throughout the northern part of the state, from the Delaware River to the Pequest River, you used to be able to find old eel weirs all around the place. These were basically, rock dams with steel traps. They were over 100 years old, we were told. So, in N.J., anyway, eels were on the menu around the 19th century, and older times, very likely.
Kairu Hakubi I read somewhere that the American Indians used bear grease as a mosquito repellent, but it smelled pretty bad. I should mention that the book I read this in had no sources and made several other points that I know are false. So, grain of salt.
Northern (Upper) Michigan there's a low lying plant kinda like a fern or dock, but not. It contains an oil that pests dislike. Sorry I could not recall the name for you
Ive always heard it pronounced the way he said it, probably because the 'oi' tends to make a natural English speaker want to say it koy, but I didnt realize thats wrong. Thanks for the correction.
sergeantbigmac ya I hear it all the time. Usually when you see the ois suffix, it's French. I believe it means people or nation or something like that. Hiro meaning hero was the prefix. As a French Canadian.although I don't speak it well anymore. It still bothers me when I here words like travois pronounced in an Anglo dialect. But then again I can't seem to pronounce onion. There's a g in it in French. Oignon.
Leah Laushway Iroquois was actually the name the French colonists gave them. They called themselves haudenosaunee, or by the name of the individual nation
We are lucky here in Australia because our recipes are mainly from the UK. More so that the US. So getting ingredients to make your concoctions is somewhat easier. As an example, we have suet on the shelf in the grocery (and from the butcher if you don't mind rendering it). I can get with all the craziest recipes you come up with. But, Eels are like escargot to me. People started eating them on a dare or something. No one saw an eel and said, "man I gotta put some of those in the next pot of soup we make"! Love your videos! Even the ones where you cook things that nobody in their right mind would eat. You keep makin' them and I'll keep watchin' them!
as a fellow yankee; eels are one food that Americans are totally missing out on. they are common in Europe and in Asia and eel meat is one of the fattiest most flavorful seafood meats you can get. Japanese BBQ eel or Unagi is amazing... i buy cans and cans of bbq eel any time i visit an international market and add it to everything (its kinda like tuna with SO much more flavor)
I can't figure out why you guys don't have more views, I love your videos. Reminds me of something I'd watch on the History Channel before they went to 24/7 Pawn Stars and Hunting Bigfoot or Extreme Crab Fishing.
Us British Londoners have a HUGE old history with Eels. And jellied eels remain a big thing in the deep East End. They would have been vital in the 18th Century as cheap and affordable food..like Oysters.. yep!!! Odd how things change... LOVE the videos, the passion and desire to portray the era as truly as possible. Hugely likeable presenters, too..
I don't eat it any more, but Dutch smoked eel from Vander Veen's -- sa lekker!!! :-) I always used to get an extra piece of unagi at sushi joints so I could bring a piece to my Frisian grandma, she loves smoked eel.
My word man! You guys really do it up. I mean I'm a heavy metal guitar player, use to be a tattoo artist, and am currently nerding out in college at the ripe old age of 32. How likely would you think it would be for me to be a fan of yours? lol, but I am.
"There aren't eels in Indiana". I grew up on a small mud-hole of a lake in northern Indiana and have seen eel swim under the piers many times as a child. I had no idea they're considered not here anymore?
You find those weirs on the Delaware river too. We ran into them during canoe trips I used to take in my later summer camp years. You had to watch for them, because if you found yourself at the end of one you had to turn around and paddle upstream to go back around.
Tony Weaver This is a Native American inspired dish and nutmeg was a spice used in European and Colonial cuisine. So as weird as it is for there to be no nutmeg in a recipe on this show, it makes sense.
Nice video and a tasty looking recipe.....but... I wonder at the environmental devastation we have created over the last two centuries such that there are no longer eels in Eel River. They would have sustained the indigenous peoples for ages. Can you imagine a European settler in the 18th century wondering if his or her descendants would ever be importing eels from Europe because there were none left in the new world's Eel River?
Ben Franklin thought they burned too much fire wood and if they kept on, some day Americans would be obliged to "fetch their fewel from across the sea". He wasn't wrong.
There used to be a large eel fishery on the St Johns River and its tributaries here in Florida. I haven't heard much about it in the last 15-20 years so I don't know they still catch eels here. Most of the eels caught here were shipped to Europe and Japan. Even today, eels are occasionally caught by fishermen on the St Johns. I love this recipe and may try it. Great video.
Hi Jas. Townsends & Son, I am a new subscriber and I love your videos! I am wondering, did people eat more or less than we do today? Were their portion sizes smaller? How many meals a day would they have had? I'm sorry if you already answered this and I just haven't come across the videos yet.
In North America food was more abundant than in Europe, and cheaper. Consequently people were usually well fed. People were smaller then, probably average about 5'4" or 5'6". On the other hand most did some kind of hard manual labor. Even someone in a sedentary occupation did more walking and physical work than we do today. They ate a lot of vegetables, meat, and bread. More fish and corn than Europeans. Archaeologists can tell the bones of an American from European due to the high phosphorus content, from the fish and corn. Sugar was expensive. Cake or other sweets not as common as today, and no sweet sodas and prepared foods. Average consumption of sugar, under 20 pounds per person per year compared to 150 pounds today. They drank more alcohol in the form of cider and beer, but also rum and whiskey. Wine had to be imported and was a rare expensive treat unless you were rich. 3 meals a day were typical. They ate hearty but seldom got fat. In fact plumpness was considered desirable and attractive especially in young women. You saw more skinny people than today, and hardly ever saw an obese person.
Their portions were definitely smaller. My grandpa mentioned once that for breakfast, they would dip their bread in the bacon grease and eat it alongside the bacon, but you NEVER saw an obese person because they worked hard. They had to or they would die. Sweets, cakes and other foods like that weren't as abundant and were always home made with little processing. My grandpa lived to near 85 years. Grease and fatty things weren't as bad back then because they worked from dawn to dusk unlike us now, sitting on our asses, eating cheetos and watching videos on the internet.
The specific grease and fatty things they had back then also weren't as bad as margarine, shortening, and partially hydrogenated oils which contain trans fats (which only occur in small amounts in other fatty foods) and have been used for decades in factory and fast food production.
Astronomy was taken very seriously, an eclipse would be an opportunity to calculate the longitude of, well, anyplace that was subject to the eclipse. You see they had no way to calculate longitude accurately before really accurate clocks came along. But an eclipse occurs at the same time all over the world. So they could calculate longitude by comparing the time of the eclipse, local time, to some standard time such as Greenwich Mean Time. So it was an important day for astronomers, professional and amateur, and could create a sensation among the population in general. I never heard of any kind of celebration though.
Only stream fishermen ( and increasingly fewer of those, I suspect ) would recognize and eel weir. Not only did native Americans use them, but when I was young it was common to see "eel houses" temporarily erected in larger streams at the mouth of a stone weir. Alas , here in NJ the "greeniots" destroyed most of these stone weirs not damaged or destroyed by ice flooding in spring never realizing those weirs were often native American relics local fishermen had repaired and maintained over tens of decades. As a kid we used to both fish for and trap eels often finding them foraging in low-lying stream side pasture puddles after a heavy rain. We never smoked our catch, but often froze them.
An important aspect of hominy is that the lye makes the nutrients more available and prevents pellagra. For people who rely on corn as a staple food you have to use lye or ash to make hominy.
I know I'm 3 years late on this comment, but we do have American Eels down here in the White River around McCormick Creek Park. And I've heard of them elsewhere too.
I'm thinking Chorizo sausage may work really well as a substitute for eel. I sure was hesitant about eel until I saw it as just a long fish. Then this made perfect since for a meal. What has happened to all the eels?
I always thought eels were some kind of worm. When I saw them make this dish, I realized it was a very long skinny fish. I think my opinion came from seeing live eels in foreign markets which looked just like long black slimy worms which I wouldn't force myself to taste. Seeing them dried made all the difference since they were fish colored and really looked like a fish not a worm.
Hat21 Perhaps not factory pollution. Part of the reason why eels are still popular in England is because of how in the past, even with all of the sewage and pollution pouring into the Thames river, eels were able to survive in the water.
They're still a lot less common in the UK than they used to be. I lived in a town in Cambridgeshire called 'Ely' which was named after the local eels and these days you have to have a special licence to fish them but it's otherwise banned as there are so few. Pollution, over fishing, invasive species and other river activity such as dams and locks all make a difference. It wouldn't surprise me if this is another example of a species that people have pretty much eradicated from the US. It's pretty uncommon to find fresh eels in the UK now and are pretty much only found in their 'jellied' form.
"But in the last few decades it’s fallen out of fashion, in part because of declining stocks. This is a serious concern. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the European eel as critically endangered. That said, eels are notoriously difficult to monitor because of the mysterious nature of their reproductive cycle, which involves the adults migrating from Europe to the Sargasso Sea near the Bahamas, where they spawn and die. The larvae then spend a year journeying back to Europe, growing into thread-like “glass eels”. As they travel back up rivers, they become little eels - elvers - on the way to their adult homes, often lakes such as Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh. Here they stay up to 20 years before the cycle repeats itself. Llewellyn is involved in the Sustainable Eel Group, which aims to protect eel stocks. The idea - and I simplify here - is to catch the elvers downstream, soon after they start the final stretch of their springtime journey back from the Sargasso Sea. In normal circumstances, the elvers would have only a five per cent chance of surviving the journey upstream - in this case, from the mouth of the Severn - as the bulk will get caught in weirs, flood defences and other man-made barriers, or eaten by predators. By keeping the elvers in tanks for 10 to 12 weeks, then releasing 70 per cent of them upstream, the number who survive the most perilous stretch of the journey should be much increased." From a May 2016 article here: www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/forget-smoked-salmon-eel-is-having-a-revival/
So are American & Japanese ones. In the wild at least. Eels are easily farmed though & these would be farmed ones as the USA has signed CITES which prevents the trade of endangered animals. Heck a lot of eel farms work to release eels back into the wild as they survive in such better numbers in captivity than the wild. The main pressure on eels in the wild is the Japanese/Asian market they eat up to 70% of eels caught, though the craze for eels in sushi in the west will not be helping. Add to that damage to the wild habitat from dams, shipping, factories.
I do enjoy this channel. I usually come here first when I get a message about a new upload. One of the best things about it are the civil, sane comments. I have a feeling that history is something the more hostile among us find boring. Your a true gentleman, and I can tell you put allot into it. I stumbled upon your little community, and am glad I did. Subscribed and looking forward to another. I even looked at your stores site and am interested in some of the merchandise. Thanks for putting in the effort. One of the better channels out there. I suppose it might be appropriate to go ahead and donate to keep it going. Instead of getting a free ride.
The shallows of the fresh water river that flows behind my house are crawling with eels. Men walk the thin ice in early and late winter in order to spear them. Always a sight to see. And to be honest, much more flavorful then most other fish.
I haven't eaten Eel for many, many years. If I went fishing on a local river with a friend, there was a good chance that at least one hit would yield an eel. They were viewed as a pest - but one that could be disposed of in the best way. We had an old keep net just for eel, and my friend would dispatch, prepare, and cook those eel - simply fried, and eaten with bread and tomato ketchup. Low cooking at it's finest, but quite stupidly good. I have always fancied trying elvers, but they are so rare these days, I know I couldn't justify doing so.
We have no idea why UA-cam has decided to show this video in 360p... Expect a HD reupload tomorrow. Until then enjoy this lowres version of 18th century cooking!
Townsends Is the video possibly still processing the 1080p version while the 360p is released already?
Yugo Mar Yeah but 20 minutes is usually long enough while it processes. Could be lagging tho
I was about to ask ;)
Townsends Until you do catch and cook with eel, venison, turkey or any game you are not presenting true period representation. You must also do a video of nixtamal with wood ash. Your period presentations are too cityfied ie. modern urban. Get down in the dirt and mud for an authentic presentation of the content you purport to have knowledge of.
UA-cam must hate eels!
I loved how you opened up showing the weir used to catch eels!
Yes, that was a great opening shot of the eel weir.
My last name is weir lol
Hello Robb your a History Nerd too 😉👍
Hello, I am from Germany and we chop the eel in chunks and nibble the flesh away, the eels you have are hot smoked and very expensive, but very tasty and fatty.
To skin the smoked eel you loosen the skin ad the neck and strip it backwards in one part (both sides in one), and nibble the flesh from the bone, and afterwards clean your hands with rye-spirit, and drink it of course, it goes with whole grain rye bread and butter
the eelskin was tanned and used as shoe laces because it is so durable
VENATUSde When you write "rey," do you mean "rye?" 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Some people go to Germany for beer. I go for the eel.ok, and beer.
yes, thanks, the grain
I believe eel is permissible in a halal diet. Eel since it doesn't have scales is not kosher, so observant Jews do not eat them.
The Japanese roast them over the fire and its so good
Wow, how very different from what I grew up with. As a child, we had a native American woman across the street. She taught my mom how to make succotash. Fresh corn, butter, and lime beans 😋. I'm almost 73, and I still make it in the summer.
Succotash is a three sisters dish--corn, beans, squash. Complete amino acid profile.
Smoked Eel is one of the most sublime foods on The Planet... just on hot buttered toast is great.
In Denmark this fish is customarily eaten with rye bread, a fried egg and pickled beets. Wash it all down with a light pilsner and snaps to taste.
LazyLife IFreak That sounds delicious. Is the fried egg yolk runny?
Entirely up to you, both options are correct thou in this case tradition dictate it runny.
OK, but we are talking about colonial North America.
Catch them in rivers all the time in Maine
Forgive me for asking, I am not a native speaker, but what the hell is "snaps"? Some kind of a vegetable?
Beautiful production values I have to say. The show has really come along technically! Enjoyed the show itself greatly!
Let's hope they'll never allow it to become either highjacked or spoiled by corporate domination (aka a sponsor). Jon already is his own sponsor, tho' so thank goodness for that!
I think this is a big reason why im so confused by the comments saying "you should get your own TV show!" like umm, no they should not... For starters the production value has already increased to near TV levels and its fricken FREE for everyone on UA-cam! With TV comes producers with an agenda and directors making creative decisions with scripts and manufactured drama. On UA-cam he has complete creative control and all ad money goes directly to him. This is the reason UA-cam is so successful, it gives the average person the platform for their own channel! He is exactly where he wants to be! Sorry for the rant its just something that bothers me.
We have freshwater eels in Mississippi. We grow corn on the South. I will have to try this recipe. Thank you!
I WAS BORN IN CLINTON, INDIANA IN 1947 AND I DON'T REMEMBER EVER HEARING THE NAME "EEL RIVER. MOVED TO SOUTHERN INDIANA WHEN I WAS 17. I WOULD TRY THIS MEAN. IT LOOKS AMAZING. THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS WITH US.
OG ALERT 🚨
This channel is like taking a bath in warm cookie dough. Honestly, it's so relaxing. Homely too, and I'm not even American. Stunning visuals, wonderful warm people in them and genuinely delightful content. God bless the lot of you who make these
Finally, the corn-eel taste combination I've been looking for! This is as game-changing as the time they combined peanut butter and chocolate.
A domestic source of smoked eels is Ray Turner's smoke house in Hancock, NY. Eels are harvested from the East Branch of the Delaware River in Hancock.
Thumbnail: Corn and Eels -- What you've all been waiting for...
Me: GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
When I was enlisted and up in Groton, CT, we had a JG who loved eels. I cleaned them and filleted the eels, sautéed them simple with salt and pepper and made some potatoes on the side. He'd get them served up and he was happier than a clam. He made it a goal to be there on my duty days so I would make him eels. Seeing this recipe makes me wish I had know about it then. I'd have made him that dish and smiled while he ate. Thank you for bringing me back a happy memory of eels.
Come on guys and girls John only has $802 supported per month on his Patreon. We can do better than that! This content is great and we should support it more!
Over 1,200 now!
@@FiendsLikeThese rookie numbers
He deserves more
3,200+
Hope we did better :)
Just so awesome to see a real fish funnel. It looks like it has been their for so long. What stories it would sing be the sorrowful or sweet they'd be beautiful.
Adult eels actually live in lakes. They migrate downstream to breed in the deep ocean. They hatch as tiny transparent elvers which make their way to the shore where they hide among the eel grass till their 3 to 4 inches long at which point they make their way upstream to inland waters.
Easy mistake to make since the much more respected salmon does it the other way around.
brocktechnology Elvers! I love that word!
You featured "my" river this time! I grew up along the Eel.
HOW DID I NOT KNOW YOU GUYS WERE IN INDIANA?? Just another thing to appreciate about my home state. 😊This was so interesting!
livlaughloaf...the Townsend store is up in Pierceton, Indiana, and iirc, Jon lives there as well.
Ron Schramm That's awesome! Definitely something I'd wanna check out. I'm a new-ish subscriber, that info must have just slipped by me. 😂
livlaughloaf...Welcome! Historical Interpretation/reenacting is wonderful! Up in West Lafayette is the Feast of the Hunters Moon in October, and down here in central Kentucky the weekend of September 22-24 is the reenactment of the Siege of Fort Boonesborough. It includes goods for sale plus an Indian village and the battle itself.
I recently found out myself and I drive by there about once a week. Stopped in a week ago and got some cook books. Very interesting shop, and the fella working was very helpful. I make my own beer, want to try aging some using their oak kegs.
Also, the great Mike Pence is from Indiana!!
Eels actually reproduce in the reverse of what you stated. They live in rivers for most of their lives but return to the ocean to breed. For a very long time no one knew exactly where they went but recently it was discovered they migrated to the Sargasso Sea.
Being a Brit I had no idea what Succotash was, apart from as a catchphrase of Sylvester the Cat, so it was really good to find out where the word actually came from. As always, thank you for your wonderfully entertaining programme.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succotash?wprov=sfla1
This is actually my first time hearing it other than Sylvester the Cat 🤣🤣
The natives probably wouldn't have had pepper, but salt is possible.
However, what is very likely is that they used various herbs.
That would be an interesting topic to pursue: Herbs Native to America.
Smoked Eel doesn't really taste fishy to begin with; It's a very subtle but delicious and smokey flavor.
Oh, you know it!
I grew up playing in the Eel river, we owned a big property that had access to a large portion to the river, it was amazing. Hearing about it in this video takes me back.
Loving all the corn recipes, They're aMAIZEing :D
Hello Guru Larry. Didn't expect to see you here.
You need to tell TB about this channel and make the co-optional bats flock here.
expected pun from an unexpected place. good job there, larry XD
Hello you!!
Larry is a fan of 18 century cooking? Who knew?
Your story about the migration of eels was the wrong way round. They spawn at sea and spend their adult life in the rivers. They're like the opposite of salmon.^^
Yep. Catadromous species.
They spawn at the Sargasso-sea, later they mate in Europe by swimming thrue open channels to get up higher. they even crawl over wet grass on rainy days to get into other waters.
There is a faster /better way to get the skin off the half filet by using a spoon, pull the skin and the spoon gets the filet clean off the skin.
And...I'm pretty sure there are PLENTY of eel in Indiana.
Like...plenty plenty. Haha
You’re wrong also. They end their days being chewed in my mouth.
Do they have above average sodium content for that reason? Seems like a good source of nutrients that we screwed up damming rivers
Indigenous "Americans" would not have had salt(some did) and peppercorns but they did have different ingredients that were used very similarly
Salt was collected from natural sources and ash was used in cooking to add a salty flavor both coltsfoot and saltbush were known for the salty flavor of their ashes. Prior to the arrival/culinary introduction of pepper Natives would have had things like spicebush berries and peppergrass (some areas even pink peppercorns) Juniper and sumac berries were/are used too ( though they are quite different from pepper in flavor) :)
1000ftWoman Thanks for the information. I didn’t know that ashes of certain plants were used in cooking to impart salt and pepper flavoring.
Why the quotes guy? they don't count because the majority got genocided?
If they are using ashes of plants that are adapted to grow in very salt rich soils (like saltbush), they are still using salt nonetheless, the ashes literally have salt in them.
If you make food spicy, you won’t notice the lack of salt
I believe that some Indian tribes that were in the south west around current day Texas , New Mexico ect actually had a type of pepper that was either black pepper or it had a similar taste as black pepper and it was used as a common part of their diet.
If I remember the book that info came from I'll link it.
You could substitute any smoked fish for eel in this recipe and have a nice dish, but if you haven't tried eel, it's worth looking for. Eel is very tasty.
There is a gentleman along the Delaware river in NY state that sells smoked American eels
The Delaware is (one of?) the last natural flowing (not dammed, etc) river(s) in the US.
They were going to build "The Tock's Island Dam," and actually bought many families' land out from under them (as they did my grandfather in Walpack, NJ), but the project was delayed a few times, then environmentalists opposed it, and in the end, we have the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
Sadly, for me, I still think of Poppy's place as "home," yet if I even want to camp there overnight, I now need a special permit from the National Park Service.
i found this channel out of nowhere and this is one of the most relaxing and charming show I've ever seen although i am not an American. Definitely will share your videos on my social media account :)
Yum! Eel is such an underrated ingredient, I'm glad you made this :)
Smoked eel is a delicasse in Holland 😋
That succotash yummmm
There are no longer eels in the interior of North America because of all the dams without any provision for the safe passage of eels.
There are eels in the Great Lakes. I live in Ontario Canada and have seen eels caught in Lake Ontario tributaries. There are eels in Indiana too. Just saw a video of an eel caught in Indiana that was 38 inches long, the guy claims it is a record.
Eels are not easy to catch, unless you set out eel traps specifically to catch them. You are not going to catch a random eel just fishing for trout etc.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are eels in the Eel River if someone took the trouble to trap them.
:(
Living about 10 minutes from the Eel River, I can attest that the last eel was caught in the 1960's at least purportedly. The river itself is now really bare, relative to what early surveyors and Native peoples' accounts. I would likely chalk that up to river runoff, over fishing, and fairly large damming projects undertaken in the 1960's. They *did* just open a, first in the nation, "fish ladder" there at an old flour mill's dam (the dam was for the water wheel) - so maybe we'll see more fish soon as, it is hoped, the ladder will help migratory, and slower swimming fish, overcome the dam.
Fish ladders really work fantastically, so does improving the water quality. If applied on a large scale though, only, though.
Or you could just take down the dam, Rasgonras.
I grew up in Northern Indiana, Marshall County, and had to move. I miss it a lot. Thanks for bringing a bit of home my way. Love the channel!
Hope to see you at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, Mr. Townsend! I love your channel and I love what you guys do!
The fillets "look a little rough" says the man with the best knife skills I've seen on this channel. Not throwing shade at Jon, just saying. He should be proud of those cuts.
Corn is actually missing a very important amino acid so to survive of corn based diet you need to soak it and potash to create the amino acid through chemical synthesis which makes hominy
I thought that I would also add that epic fish migrations on the East Coast like white perch, striped bass, and eel were hindered by man-made dams
Japanese barbecued eel is one of my favorite foods.
Could you please do some squirrel and rabbit cooking?
Keep trying, Paul! Hope it works out. I'm especially curious about both
I don't believe you would be saying that if you had ever eaten a rodent. Sure, I wouldn't eat one living around people because they eat trash. But rodents are actually among the most delicious things I have had.
Obama Colluded With Putin you can try scrubbing before and after a brine and if you really hate them you can cook it over a fire and burn away anything remaining, that's what I have done hope that helps
Eye Ore Squirrel tastes great. I thought it was a bit like dark meat from a chicken
Eye Ore. Rats are delicious too. Again, I wouldn't eat one living around people, but a nut-fattened squirrel or rat in the woods is a great treat.
Love the channel, wishing there was such a passionate equivalent in the UK. Would be great to see you do a comparison between European and US historical food for a set point in time.
If you hated eels, would this be suffering succotash?
Lol. Good one
Ha good one
Arrowdodger -ffsufferring ffuccotash, that’s fffunny! 😂
🤣 You just made my day!
Heh.
Everything on this channel is fascinating. Keep up the good work! I am watching.
Would love to learn more about native American cuisine
The skins, heads and spines and use them to make a broth. Use that broth as part of the cooking water for the soup. You end up using the entire product and get as much flavor out of it as possible.
I know that I won't sound a bit too corny when I say, D'eel-ectable!
;)
A little knob of butter ontop in the bowl would be super. Eel is very good.they have a bit short flavor ,they melt quickly when one ear it,but smoked eel open sandwich is great. Smoked Mackerel or Kippers in the succotash would be good also. Great episode .
you have the most relaxing videos.
In N.J., throughout the northern part of the state, from the Delaware River to the Pequest River, you used to be able to find old eel weirs all around the place. These were basically, rock dams with steel traps. They were over 100 years old, we were told. So, in N.J., anyway, eels were on the menu around the 19th century, and older times, very likely.
Did mosquito repellant exist in any form in the 18th century?
They answered that in a previous Q&A episode, I believe.
I think the best you could do back then was just rub some kind of grease on your skin
Kairu Hakubi I read somewhere that the American Indians used bear grease as a mosquito repellent, but it smelled pretty bad.
I should mention that the book I read this in had no sources and made several other points that I know are false. So, grain of salt.
Northern (Upper) Michigan there's a low lying plant kinda like a fern or dock, but not. It contains an oil that pests dislike. Sorry I could not recall the name for you
Bear grease. "They hate the smell worse than I do." North West Passage.
Love this show. History is fascinating.. The eels are safe from me on this recipe.
Huh. Here in Canada, we pronounce the name of the Iroquois tribe like, "ear-o-kwah", not "ear-o-koy". I wonder how they refer to themselves...
Leah Laushway you're right, that is the correct pronunciation. Jon said it wrong.
Ive always heard it pronounced the way he said it, probably because the 'oi' tends to make a natural English speaker want to say it koy, but I didnt realize thats wrong. Thanks for the correction.
sergeantbigmac ya I hear it all the time. Usually when you see the ois suffix, it's French. I believe it means people or nation or something like that. Hiro meaning hero was the prefix. As a French Canadian.although I don't speak it well anymore. It still bothers me when I here words like travois pronounced in an Anglo dialect. But then again I can't seem to pronounce onion. There's a g in it in French. Oignon.
+Leah laushway
They call themselves "Haudenosaunee", "Longhouse-people".
Leah Laushway Iroquois was actually the name the French colonists gave them. They called themselves haudenosaunee, or by the name of the individual nation
We are lucky here in Australia because our recipes are mainly from the UK. More so that the US. So getting ingredients to make your concoctions is somewhat easier. As an example, we have suet on the shelf in the grocery (and from the butcher if you don't mind rendering it). I can get with all the craziest recipes you come up with. But, Eels are like escargot to me. People started eating them on a dare or something. No one saw an eel and said, "man I gotta put some of those in the next pot of soup we make"!
Love your videos! Even the ones where you cook things that nobody in their right mind would eat. You keep makin' them and I'll keep watchin' them!
my hovercraft is full of eels
as a fellow yankee; eels are one food that Americans are totally missing out on. they are common in Europe and in Asia and eel meat is one of the fattiest most flavorful seafood meats you can get. Japanese BBQ eel or Unagi is amazing...
i buy cans and cans of bbq eel any time i visit an international market and add it to everything (its kinda like tuna with SO much more flavor)
I have Never clicked videoes like yours so fast
I know. This is my all time favorite Townsend video. The eels were awesome, and drone footage was really good.
I can't figure out why you guys don't have more views, I love your videos. Reminds me of something I'd watch on the History Channel before they went to 24/7 Pawn Stars and Hunting Bigfoot or Extreme Crab Fishing.
They catch eel here up north in my province Groningen in the village of Zoutkamp.
Us British Londoners have a HUGE old history with Eels. And jellied eels remain a big thing in the deep East End. They would have been vital in the 18th Century as cheap and affordable food..like Oysters.. yep!!! Odd how things change... LOVE the videos, the passion and desire to portray the era as truly as possible. Hugely likeable presenters, too..
I don't eat it any more, but Dutch smoked eel from Vander Veen's -- sa lekker!!! :-) I always used to get an extra piece of unagi at sushi joints so I could bring a piece to my Frisian grandma, she loves smoked eel.
My favorite way to have eel is Japanese style, grilled and brushed with their bbq sauce
My word man! You guys really do it up. I mean I'm a heavy metal guitar player, use to be a tattoo artist, and am currently nerding out in college at the ripe old age of 32. How likely would you think it would be for me to be a fan of yours? lol, but I am.
I used to catch eels from the Connecticut river all the time as a kid. You can peel the skin off like a catfish. beer battered eel is awesome as well.
Here in Indonesia we fry the eel
Thank you for honoring our America with the Lanapé Native people and using grains from days gone by.
"There aren't eels in Indiana". I grew up on a small mud-hole of a lake in northern Indiana and have seen eel swim under the piers many times as a child. I had no idea they're considered not here anymore?
You find those weirs on the Delaware river too. We ran into them during canoe trips I used to take in my later summer camp years. You had to watch for them, because if you found yourself at the end of one you had to turn around and paddle upstream to go back around.
What???
NO NUTMEG???
Tony Weaver This is a Native American inspired dish and nutmeg was a spice used in European and Colonial cuisine. So as weird as it is for there to be no nutmeg in a recipe on this show, it makes sense.
darn, we were ready to riot
Ramirez, no rioting until the king imposes a nutmeg tax; then, heave it all into the nearest creek!
I don't think the Iroquois, or, Lenape had ever even heard of nutmeg.
sekritdinos it's a joke. Because there is nutmeg in almost every recipe
Eel is the only fish I like. Fresh from Dublin Canals. So good!
Nice video and a tasty looking recipe.....but...
I wonder at the environmental devastation we have created over the last two centuries such that there are no longer eels in Eel River. They would have sustained the indigenous peoples for ages. Can you imagine a European settler in the 18th century wondering if his or her descendants would ever be importing eels from Europe because there were none left in the new world's Eel River?
Ben Franklin thought they burned too much fire wood and if they kept on, some day Americans would be obliged to "fetch their fewel from across the sea". He wasn't wrong.
Most people probably thought it was such a land of abundance that the natural resources would never run out. That's why so many of them came here.
There used to be a large eel fishery on the St Johns River and its tributaries here in Florida. I haven't heard much about it in the last 15-20 years so I don't know they still catch eels here. Most of the eels caught here were shipped to Europe and Japan. Even today, eels are occasionally caught by fishermen on the St Johns. I love this recipe and may try it. Great video.
How about a soup using smoked kippers. Do you think that would be a good substitute for eel?
I think that would come out quite similar to the eel soup. Kippers have a bit more of a fishy taste compared to the more meaty tast of eels.
Eel is also pretty oily, so the mouthfeel might be a touch different. But I'm sure kippers would work great.
They mention using herring right at the end. You do know kippers are herring?
Mmm, eels. The delicious medium between smoky, chewy, greasy, soft, and fishy. Love those things.
Hi Jas. Townsends & Son, I am a new subscriber and I love your videos! I am wondering, did people eat more or less than we do today? Were their portion sizes smaller? How many meals a day would they have had? I'm sorry if you already answered this and I just haven't come across the videos yet.
In North America food was more abundant than in Europe, and cheaper. Consequently people were usually well fed. People were smaller then, probably average about 5'4" or 5'6". On the other hand most did some kind of hard manual labor. Even someone in a sedentary occupation did more walking and physical work than we do today.
They ate a lot of vegetables, meat, and bread. More fish and corn than Europeans. Archaeologists can tell the bones of an American from European due to the high phosphorus content, from the fish and corn.
Sugar was expensive. Cake or other sweets not as common as today, and no sweet sodas and prepared foods. Average consumption of sugar, under 20 pounds per person per year compared to 150 pounds today.
They drank more alcohol in the form of cider and beer, but also rum and whiskey. Wine had to be imported and was a rare expensive treat unless you were rich.
3 meals a day were typical. They ate hearty but seldom got fat. In fact plumpness was considered desirable and attractive especially in young women. You saw more skinny people than today, and hardly ever saw an obese person.
Mr Danforth 374 Thank you so much for answering my question! I really appreciate it!
Glad to be of help.
Their portions were definitely smaller. My grandpa mentioned once that for breakfast, they would dip their bread in the bacon grease and eat it alongside the bacon, but you NEVER saw an obese person because they worked hard. They had to or they would die.
Sweets, cakes and other foods like that weren't as abundant and were always home made with little processing.
My grandpa lived to near 85 years. Grease and fatty things weren't as bad back then because they worked from dawn to dusk unlike us now, sitting on our asses, eating cheetos and watching videos on the internet.
The specific grease and fatty things they had back then also weren't as bad as margarine, shortening, and partially hydrogenated oils which contain trans fats (which only occur in small amounts in other fatty foods) and have been used for decades in factory and fast food production.
This is the most pure show on UA-cam
Hey townsends you guys are amazing and I have a question "How was the solar/lunar eclipse celebrated in the 1700-1800?"
Astronomy was taken very seriously, an eclipse would be an opportunity to calculate the longitude of, well, anyplace that was subject to the eclipse. You see they had no way to calculate longitude accurately before really accurate clocks came along. But an eclipse occurs at the same time all over the world. So they could calculate longitude by comparing the time of the eclipse, local time, to some standard time such as Greenwich Mean Time. So it was an important day for astronomers, professional and amateur, and could create a sensation among the population in general. I never heard of any kind of celebration though.
Mr Danforth 374 cool thanks
Greenwich Mean Time is a mid-19th century invention. Most "standard time" systems are even newer.
www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/how-did-18th-century-people-react-eclipses#
I love like 20 minutes away from connor prairie. It’s a small world
Is it odd that I clicked "like" before the video started playing?
Here? Not odd at all.
Me too!
I always do, because there is no reason to dislike!
Nope, I do as well, nothing bad on Townsends, every upload is IRIE!
OptimusWombat I do only for my most favorite channels
Only stream fishermen ( and increasingly fewer of those, I suspect ) would recognize and eel weir. Not only did native Americans use them, but when I was young it was common to see "eel houses" temporarily erected in larger streams at the mouth of a stone weir. Alas , here in NJ the "greeniots" destroyed most of these stone weirs not damaged or destroyed by ice flooding in spring never realizing those weirs were often native American relics local fishermen had repaired and maintained over tens of decades. As a kid we used to both fish for and trap eels often finding them foraging in low-lying stream side pasture puddles after a heavy rain. We never smoked our catch, but often froze them.
Hello corn and eels daddy
Nicole Marly 😂
Nicole Marly nicole it's been up for 2 minutes jesus
The FAN Haden and Seth ᕕ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕗ
Hi fun Nicole!
:)
Nicole Marly This channel has gotten weird since the subscription rise...
An important aspect of hominy is that the lye makes the nutrients more available and prevents pellagra. For people who rely on corn as a staple food you have to use lye or ash to make hominy.
Que rico se ve eso puñeta!!!!
God this channel is pure gold
Where's the NUTMEG?
The Sun-Dried Tomato of the 18th Century. ;-)
Thanks for shearing this with us. They use to eat eel a lot in the UK and Europe at this time and later.
360p squad where you at lol
uploaded an hour ago and only 12 minutes long. This should have processed by now. 360p is unwatchable!
I know I'm 3 years late on this comment, but we do have American Eels down here in the White River around McCormick Creek Park. And I've heard of them elsewhere too.
I'm thinking Chorizo sausage may work really well as a substitute for eel. I sure was hesitant about eel until I saw it as just a long fish. Then this made perfect since for a meal. What has happened to all the eels?
mary w smoked trout is a good substitute.
Here in Florida we have a lot of smoked Mullet so that would also work as well. Thanks for the suggestion!
mary w Dams probably blocked them from spawning grounds. Pollution doesnt help either
Can you explain why everybody hates eel but eats other fish? I don't get it.
I always thought eels were some kind of worm. When I saw them make this dish, I realized it was a very long skinny fish. I think my opinion came from seeing live eels in foreign markets which looked just like long black slimy worms which I wouldn't force myself to taste. Seeing them dried made all the difference since they were fish colored and really looked like a fish not a worm.
Eel !! Fantastic... happen to have some in the fridge! Caught in traditional way same way for hundreds of year...so happy to see this!
I'm a simple man, I see "Corn and Eels" on the thumbnail and I click...
We still had eels in the rivers in Indiana (Lost River specifically ) when I was a kid in the 80's & 90's but we never tried to eat them.
So what happened to the Eels? Was it all those factories by the rivers?
Hat21 Perhaps not factory pollution.
Part of the reason why eels are still popular in England is because of how in the past, even with all of the sewage and pollution pouring into the Thames river, eels were able to survive in the water.
The eels died out.
The eels shown being eaten here are also an endangered species...
Hat21 If I had to guess i'd say it's a result of dams and other structures blocking waterways.
They're still a lot less common in the UK than they used to be. I lived in a town in Cambridgeshire called 'Ely' which was named after the local eels and these days you have to have a special licence to fish them but it's otherwise banned as there are so few. Pollution, over fishing, invasive species and other river activity such as dams and locks all make a difference. It wouldn't surprise me if this is another example of a species that people have pretty much eradicated from the US. It's pretty uncommon to find fresh eels in the UK now and are pretty much only found in their 'jellied' form.
Over fishing.
European eels like the one eaten in this video are on the critically endangered list.
I remember crossing the eel river on my road trip to the Grand Canyon from Connecticut!
Well you can say this video was "corny" huehue
We have eels a lot in UK . In London especially we eat jellied eels with our seafood . Lovely 👍
European eels are an endangered species...
Guess why...
"But in the last few decades it’s fallen out of fashion, in part because of declining stocks. This is a serious concern. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the European eel as critically endangered. That said, eels are notoriously difficult to monitor because of the mysterious nature of their reproductive cycle, which involves the adults migrating from Europe to the Sargasso Sea near the Bahamas, where they spawn and die.
The larvae then spend a year journeying back to Europe, growing into thread-like “glass eels”. As they travel back up rivers, they become little eels - elvers - on the way to their adult homes, often lakes such as Northern Ireland’s Lough Neagh. Here they stay up to 20 years before the cycle repeats itself.
Llewellyn is involved in the Sustainable Eel Group, which aims to protect eel stocks. The idea - and I simplify here - is to catch the elvers downstream, soon after they start the final stretch of their springtime journey back from the Sargasso Sea. In normal circumstances, the elvers would have only a five per cent chance of surviving the journey upstream - in this case, from the mouth of the Severn - as the bulk will get caught in weirs, flood defences and other man-made barriers, or eaten by predators. By keeping the elvers in tanks for 10 to 12 weeks, then releasing 70 per cent of them upstream, the number who survive the most perilous stretch of the journey should be much increased."
From a May 2016 article here:
www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/features/forget-smoked-salmon-eel-is-having-a-revival/
They are still classified as Critically endangered.
They are freaking delicious, thats why
So are American & Japanese ones. In the wild at least. Eels are easily farmed though & these would be farmed ones as the USA has signed CITES which prevents the trade of endangered animals. Heck a lot of eel farms work to release eels back into the wild as they survive in such better numbers in captivity than the wild. The main pressure on eels in the wild is the Japanese/Asian market they eat up to 70% of eels caught, though the craze for eels in sushi in the west will not be helping. Add to that damage to the wild habitat from dams, shipping, factories.
It probably doesn't help that baby eels are a delicacy in Spain.
I do enjoy this channel. I usually come here first when I get a message about a new upload.
One of the best things about it are the civil, sane comments. I have a feeling that history is something the more hostile among us find boring.
Your a true gentleman, and I can tell you put allot into it.
I stumbled upon your little community, and am glad I did.
Subscribed and looking forward to another. I even looked at your stores site and am interested in some of the merchandise.
Thanks for putting in the effort. One of the better channels out there.
I suppose it might be appropriate to go ahead and donate to keep it going.
Instead of getting a free ride.
MrMudcatslim that was one of the nicest, most humane comments I've seen on UA-cam. Thank you for the dose of faith in humanity. And I agree!
Aww yeah! Eels and drone footage! You are just simply the best!
The shallows of the fresh water river that flows behind my house are crawling with eels. Men walk the thin ice in early and late winter in order to spear them. Always a sight to see. And to be honest, much more flavorful then most other fish.
Michelle Chiasson Where do you live? I live in Eastern Pennsylvania, and I know there are eels in the rivers around here.
I haven't eaten Eel for many, many years. If I went fishing on a local river with a friend, there was a good chance that at least one hit would yield an eel. They were viewed as a pest - but one that could be disposed of in the best way. We had an old keep net just for eel, and my friend would dispatch, prepare, and cook those eel - simply fried, and eaten with bread and tomato ketchup. Low cooking at it's finest, but quite stupidly good. I have always fancied trying elvers, but they are so rare these days, I know I couldn't justify doing so.
I live near "Alplaus" NY, which means "place of the eels" in Dutch. The creek in Alplaus use to be full of eel.