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Hamburg Eel Soup

4 servings

Ingredients

• 625 g Eel
• 0.5 l Water (boiling)
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 1 piece Onion (small)
• 2 piece Bay leaf
• 3 piece Peppercorns
• Sage (a few sprigs)
• 2.5 tbsp Vinegar
• 1 cup Celery, carrots, and parsley root, diced
• 1 cup Green peas, shelled
• 0.5 cup Asparagus
• Sponge dumplings (as needed)
• Herbs (parsley, chervil, dill, marjoram, tarragon, basil, celery leaves) (a little)
• 6 piece Pears, peeled and cored
• 0.5 l Bouillon
• 0.5 bottle White wine
• 2 tbsp Butter
• 1 tbsp Flour
• Lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg (a little)

Instructions

1. For 4 people, take an eel weighing 500-750 g.
2. Cut off the head and tail, skin, eviscerate, debone, wash, and cut into pieces two to three fingers wide.
3. Cook until tender with ½ liter of boiling water, salt, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, sage, and vinegar.
4. Separately cook diced celery, carrots, and parsley root, and peas and asparagus, either in beef broth or salted water.
5. Similarly, cook sponge dumplings in beef broth and let the chopped herbs steep in it.
6. Cook the pears like compote with sugar, cinnamon, water, and red wine.
7. Mix the strained eel broth with the bouillon and white wine, thicken with a brown roux made from butter and flour, add all the prepared ingredients, bring to a quick boil, and season to a sweet-sour taste with lemon juice, a little sugar, and nutmeg.

Modernized from a treasured 19th-century German cookbook.