I remember my dad bringing home a washtub full of squriming eels and placing it in the kitchen. The eels were very slipery from all of their slime. My father would say, 'Okay, boy, go get some newspaper.'
He'd put on his leather apron in preparation for the skinning. Then he'd take out his whetstone, get the jackknife razor sharp and gut each eel. He'd take his thumb, run it down the backbone and remove the blood line under the filament of the belly. Then, holding the eel by its head, he'd cut pretty much through the backbone and then start to separate the head and skin from the back flesh of the eel.
He'd take that jackknife to the back of the head and get the skin started. Then, with a piece of the newspaper protecting each hand, he'd grab that little piece of the backbone with one hand and the skin with the other hand, pulling in opposite directions until tyhe flesh came right out like a snake shedding its own skin. As he pulled it out, the eel would be squirming. It wouldn't be alive, of course, but it would still squirm right around his arm.
Earl Mills, or Chief Flying Eagle, is a gourmet chef at his popular Cape Cod restaurant, The Flume, where he prepares native Wampanoag recipes from local foodstuffs like hard-shell clams, Atlantic salmon, cranberries, corn and, of course, eels.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Indians, Mills' ancestors, were the native peoples who celebrated the first Thanksgiving with the Plymouth colonists in 1621.
With a similar sense of sharing and openness, he offers this collection of ancestral dishes paired with personal recollections, stories and photographs of a people closely attuned to the land.
Laced with beautiful black and white photos and artistic works, this cookbook covers a wealth of historic detail in food history along with hearty recipes for wonderful comfort dishes such as Emma Oakley Mills’ Fry Bread, Flume Quahog Chowder, Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s Baked Striped Bass, Ferdinand Mills’ Corn bread, Acorn and Butternut Squash, and the Washboiler Clambake.
There are a variety of recipes for soups and chowders, breads, salads and dressings, pastries, meats, game, seafood, vegetables, pasta, sauces, and desserts. Chef Mills presents stories of the foods and special blessings that enhance our anticipated enjoyment of the feast.