Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Jellied Eels

"Jellied Eels."

"Eel."

"Hmm, for now the first is eel."

The Earl of Derby, Miss Edith, Mr. Henry blurted the same words in unison.

"Regarding that part it seems everyone has no different opinion. I also agree. Germany, France, Italy all smoke or grill and eat eel, but uniquely only Britain boiling and eating became popular."

The reason jellied eels became popular food in Britain was nothing special.

Because the fish species most caught in the Thames River was European eel.

Eel is strong even to water pollution so it survived well even in the Thames River dirtied due to industrialization.

Because well caught it was treated as cheap food ingredient, and because boiling and cooling for long-term storage the gelatin that seeped from the eel hardened and naturally took jelly form.

Jellified food is strong to external temperature humidity changes and doesn't spoil easily.

"Why on earth don't commoners properly cook and eat this delicious eel! Even those cunning pig-like guys of France when eating eel matelote (*Matelote d'Anguille, wine eel stew) is basic! Ah, sorry I wasn't trying to curse you!"

"Earl, I repeatedly say I'm not a French person."

The reason jellied eels is the worst dish.

Appearance, aroma, taste all are not good.

Basically because eel was boiled as is after only cutting into pieces without even removing the skin, the silver outer scales were all visible and dropped appetite.

Moreover eel is a fish that gives off a very severe fishy smell if mishandled.

The mucus on the eel surface and specific water-soluble compounds created from dead eel are the main causes of the fishy smell, and when meeting water this component dissolves into water and has the characteristic of the fishy smell becoming more severe.

When frying or grilling at high temperature the component that causes fishy smell volatilizes or is removed, but when boiling that's impossible that sound.

Taste? Who on earth would say the slippery and fishy gelatin of jellied eels is delicious?

Moreover eel has a lot of fat too, right?

From the start fat is a nutrient whose flavor comes alive when cooked at high temperature rather than low temperature.

If grilling or frying the internal fat is preserved while the outside becomes crispy and the inside soft so umami is maximized, but if boiling that escapes into water and the flavor weakens. Eel was especially a food ingredient with severe such phenomenon.

From the start the approach of making into jelly was wrong that talk. Eel is right to grill or fry.

So contemporary Europeans also considered Britain's jellied eels the world's worst dish. To the point of occasionally mentioning London's jellied eels as the worst dish in their newspapers or magazines and mocking.

There was a reason everyone was indignant.

"Earl, I also was curious about that and asked while exploring London. They said to smoke too many hands go and the price rises, so boiling and making into jelly is more economical. Because just fire and a big pot are enough."

The British island was basically humid due to the unique maritime climate. Not stuffy hot humidity like Taiwan or Japan, but close to humid because drizzle often falls.

An environment where food spoils very easily. So naturally interest in long-term storage food increased, and there was unique British cooking culture that developed in that process.

Roast, pie, cold cut, and jelly.

Roast is the method of grilling meat or vegetables at high temperature in the oven, reducing moisture and making the outside crispy to delay decay.

Pie is the method of wrapping the filling ingredients in flour dough and baking, the flour dough blocks external contact so food can be preserved long.

Cold cut is the method of salting or smoking meat and making into sausage and slicing and eating in cold state.

Lastly jelly. Jelly is the method of boiling or steaming ingredients then hardening with gelatin to block external moisture inflow and raise preservability.

That is, the guys who first made jellied eels, just pondering how to sell cheaper the eel commonly caught in the Thames River, only utilized the historic cooking method of jelly passed down from grandmother's generation that talk.

And as competition attached among the guys selling jellied eels and lowering and lowering the price to the limit, jellied eels becoming the 'cheapest dish' in London other eel cooking methods naturally became obsolete.

Laborers would have been hard to easily ignore jellied eels that can easily intake protein at a cheap price.

"That is, your words Jean are to completely sweep away all the stall vendors selling jellied eels in London, right?"

"No! What big trouble words are you saying?! I only emphasized the fact that price decided everything!"

As of 1901 the price of one bowl of jellied eels was only half a penny (0.5 pence).

Usually 5-7 cold jellied eel pieces with a little warm broth poured were given.

Considering the average price of fish and chips or sausage rolls that laborers commonly ate is 1-2 pence, it was fine to say jellied eels is the cheapest food one can buy and eat in London.

And what made this price was, basically thanks to labor force reduction.

Because eel just cutting largely into pieces, roughly throwing into a big pot and boiling, cooling the boiled as is and hardening was jellied eels. Rather there were also conscience-less guys who put more gelatin if jelly seemed insufficient.

Moreover the warm broth given together, fit perfectly for laborers to briefly warm their bodies on London's cold and damp mornings. There was a reason it was popular that talk.

A monster dish for London-optimized stall sales that abandoned appearance, aroma, smell all and all-in only on price. That was exactly jellied eels.

"Wait, Mr. Durand. Don't you know much more than me? By any chance..."

"Of course you wouldn't have known. I'm also from a poor laborer family on Baker Street. There were many times I filled two meals a day with only jellied eels and rye bread."

"Ah... Excuse me. Because you possess thinking power and eloquence that don't match the age I thought you studied at Eton College (*Eton College, noble prestigious school)."

"It's words I often hear. Don't mind."

Anyway there was no different opinion that jellied eels is one of Britain's worst foods.

"Of course if not beating this price eliminating jellied eels from Britain is absolutely impossible... Why are everyone's expressions like that?"

"Jean-Paul Durand! That you've lived this far while eating such bizarre food is really unbelievable... Terrible! Moreover half a penny? Can food be that cheap?"

No, Earl. Haven't you seen half penny coins? Well, how would a noble know commoner food?

"Mr. Jean, really a sad story! To think you ate half penny low-quality food..."

"No! Even outwardly food is still food! If eating it's not that terribly terrible! It's not up to food waste!"

From the start even poor laborers have basic taste, if completely inedible food no matter how cheap there's no way they'd buy and eat!

Compared to the notoriety I heard in my previous life, if just enduring that unique fishy smell it was still edible!

Basically eel itself is a very delicious food ingredient. In the boiling process fat escapes a bit and becomes light and plain but the taste doesn't change.

Not touching the jelly part whose taste and texture and aroma are the worst as much as possible, putting a full piece in the mouth and only gently scraping the softly cooked meat and spitting the bones was the general method of eating jellied eels.

"I also agree with the point that price is the biggest problem as Mr. Durand's opinion. Eel is most delicious grilled or smoked and eaten, but grilling has storage issues too, and smoking is expensive. Do you have a good solution? I don't know well about cooking."

"Did you forget from the start that this is a nonsense quiz? I don't think there's a need to necessarily eliminate jellied eels. Originally culture if trying to eliminate bounces up more vigorously. So that's a bad move."

"Then...?"

"Consumers have to choose eel dishes again by taste. I'm thinking of giving one more choice. Only then can the chain of this vicious cycle be cut. There's no method to eliminate this other than jellied eels becoming obsolete itself."

"It seems you already have a good method in mind."

I don't know if this is a good method or not. There was an idea that flashed in my head.

Since there's still a month left, there was room to try something.

"Isn't jellied eels originally food that earns profit with small profit large sales? But some stall vendors, might dislike that, right?"

"Dislike...?"

"It's troublesome. Have to deal with many customers too, and even if making jelly is said to be simple one has to make a lot in advance. So, how about teaching some merchants the know-how of selling eel expensively while going less hands?"

At that time Mr. Henry intervened.

"Is there such a method? Other than grilling, smoking, or boiling?"

"Mr. Henry, you already said the correct answer. If grilling it's fine. Eel is delicious if grilled. That's an unavoidable major premise."

"You said if grilling it becomes expensive?"

"If making less expensive and selling it's fine, right?"

"The words seem to be going in circles. How is that possible?"

"It's possible. Why do you think food becomes expensive?"

"Well... Uh... Scarcity of ingredients?"

"That's talk of high-end food gentry eat. We're talking about laborer class dishes now."

"Chef's skill?"

"That's an element that adds premium to cooking. You have to look more toward the essence."

"Hmm, I don't know well. Will you tell the answer?"

"It's simple. If making more in the same time it becomes cheap, if making less it becomes expensive. But grilling is hard to make a lot in shorter time than jelly. Boiling just putting all in a big pot and cooking is fine, but grilling takes a lot of space."

"That's too obvious talk."

"Then if shortening the cooking time it's fine. So I'm thinking of informing a competitive suitable method."

"Heh."

There are three methods of shortening the cooking time of grilling.

First, skewer grilling method.

Cutting meat one by one like samgyeopsal, and flipping front and back one by one takes more hands than expected. If overcooked it burns, if undercooked it has no taste. Because one has to continuously watch whether each meat piece is appropriately cooked it's troublesome.

But if skewering on a skewer that disadvantage is offset. Because one can easily flip at once.

Second, pre-grilling method.

The method of cooking meat once in advance, and grilling again later. Because the heat that penetrated to the inside of the meat at first breaks the internal tissue, when grilling the second time it cooks more easily and uniformly. Conclusively if summing the final cooking time the pre-grilling side is overwhelmingly shorter.

Third, seasoned grilling method.

If marinating seasoning on meat in advance, the salt or acid component of the seasoning makes the meat softer, and the seasoning coats the outside and makes the surface cook faster shortening the cooking time. Adding taste with seasoning is basic.

I don't know which method will work best in 1901 London, but in fact the fact that stall vendors continued to insist only on jellied eels also I see the problem that other cooking methods mostly became obsolete was big.

Absence of knowledge and disconnection of cooking methods.

What I'm trying to do is only erecting a lighthouse that illuminates the way.

For now what came to mind was about this much.

"As expected... You're befitting Britain's best chef I acknowledged! This is the feeling of opening eyes to a world I didn't know at all."

"Mr. Durand! By any chance is it okay to put this in my new Holmes novel... You said? I'll memo right away."

"Jean, lately your face wasn't visible so I wondered if you're going around playing, in the meantime your cooking skill improved by leaps and bounds! Amazing!"

At Mr. Henry's last words I was slightly pricked.

In my previous life it's obvious common sense, but in the current era it absolutely wasn't common sense.

From the start the period when scientific approach or analysis toward cooking hasn't even started.

Even if cookbooks are popular in bookstores most are only home-style recipes passed down or things about meal etiquette.

"Skewers if requesting to Mr. Lewis's workshop can be mass-produced. If just adding a few devices one can easily put on existing grills and grill. Pre-grilling anyone can easily do if knowing the knack."

However there was one problem.

Eel seasoned grilling.

Europe also has seasoning methods using vinegar or lemon, but that's a method mainly used in Italy or Germany so I didn't know at all.

If within the knowledge range I know, only the blending method of eel seasoning commonly used in Korea...

"Soy sauce? What is that?"

"Ah, it's seasoning made with beans used to make galbijjim! I briefly tasted and it was very salty! Edith requested and last time we barely obtained from a Chinese store in Limehouse! Ahem."

That recipe soy sauce was essential.

And of course, in Britain soy sauce was expensive and hard to obtain.

With only lemon and vinegar it would be hard to replace that taste.

Damn, isn't there a good method?