Species sheet · The Edible River
European eel
Born off the Sargasso, raised in our ditches.
- Hot-smoked, Dutch style
- In a red-wine matelote, Loire style
- Au vert, with green herbs, Belgian style
- In French
- Anguille européenne
- Scientific name
- Anguilla anguilla
- In the water
- It hatches in the Sargasso Sea, crosses the Atlantic as a larva, enters the estuaries as a transparent glass eel and spends years in rivers, ponds and ditches before setting off to spawn.
- Season & buying
- Critically endangered, but legally fished under quota; buy only from licensed fishermen or smokehouses. Fattest in autumn, when it heads back to sea.
- Common length
- ~60 cm
- How to identify it
- Snake-like body with smooth, slimy skin
A single fin running unbroken from back to tail
Lower jaw longer than the upper
On the plate
Rich flesh, firm yet melting, with a mild, full flavour.
Avoid: Eating it raw or undercooked: its blood carries a toxin that only heat destroys.
No one has ever seen it spawn. Its birthplace was found by tracking ever smaller larvae across the Atlantic, all the way to the Sargasso.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
