Rufus, do you have a mixer? But as hard as it is to believe, long before electricity these recipes were made by hand. Yeah, I know... the mixer is so much easier than hand kneading bread dough. BTDT.
Chris, that sounds perfectly revolting. I'll pass on it. Yeah, it sounds much like lobster bait. 30ish years ago we went to a wharf that housed a lobstermans gear and as we approached we heard a gent coming from there and in a loud voice was exclaiming,"Vile, Vile!". Yes, the bait brine tank had a

"strong" stench. The stench was something akin to fish sauce as used in some Asian cooking.
When I was a child I had a uncle who lived in a bungalow at the NJ shore. He would buy from eel trappers lots of eels when they "ran" and would pickle them. While watching TV he'd come out and consume a plate of them in the gelatin, leaving the snake appearing bone segments behind. As a child I never tried any, but as an adult I would but he's long dead and I no longer have a source of eels. But they come up into the freshwater rivers to spawn every year. But I don't know that there is any existing eel fishery in Maine. I never heard of one except for the juvenile elvers.
Brian
Maker of Kramperts Finest Bay Rum and Frostbite
http://www.krampertsfinest.com/
Or find it here: Italian Barber, West Coast Shaving, Barclay Crocker, The Old Town Shaving Company at Stats, Maggard Razors; Leavitt & Peirce, Harvard Square