Ummera Smoked Silver Eel

UMMERA SMOKED SALMON

The Silver Eel

The history of the Silver Eel is a fascinating and fine example of the power of nature. We trace this remarkable species from the sea weed that it was spawned on in the Sargasso Sea, off the coast of Florida, through its life and to its return to the Sargasso Sea and final death.

Drifting as a willow leafed lava on the ocean currents, the newborn eel begins its life's adventure. After three years adrift, the lava changes to an elver and is then able to swim along the currents, washed to the rivers and lakes of Europe by the Gulf Stream.

130 million years ago, when the Atlantic was no more than the Bristol Channel, when Delaware nudged up against Devon and when most of the world was covered by the Pacific Ocean, the ancestors of the European Eel, Anguilla Anguilla, spawned a few miles out in this narrow sea. As the Tectonic Plates moved apart over thousands of years, the journey from their spawning grounds increased gradually to 4,000 miles.

The Eels spend some eight years feeding in the rich rivers and loughs of Europe. When they reach maturity, the eels congregate on the bottom of their river and forming a writhing ball, they change from being brown river eels to silvery black eels, ready to re-enter the environment of their youth. On the wildest of autumn nights, when the rivers are in full flood, the transformed 'Silver' eels begin the descent of the rivers to start their migration back to the very sea weed that they began life on.

They travel along the Ocean bed surfacing from time to time to take a star shot with their in-built radar; for the last 500 miles the eels home in to their destination by smell. After spawning, the parent eels dies, thus ending one remarkable life cycle and commencing another.

We buy the 'Silver' eel in the autumn at the start of their migration; in direct contrast to the Wild Atlantic Salmon who arrives into the rivers in peak condition to survive its starvation in fresh water, the 'Silver' eel is in its prime as it leaves the rivers to survive its arduous journey back to the Sargasso Sea.

Our preference is for the larger, 2lbs plus, female eels for smoking; they give us the succulent subtle yet rich taste that is a revelation to first time consumers.

We recommend that you skin the eel, peeling it like a banana, then slice it thinly lengthwise; with a spoon, scrape the jelly and oil from the inside of the skin and serve with the sliced eel. Garnish with lemon, horse-radish sauce and gherkins.