Gula, angula and eel are terms that are often confused in gastronomic vocabulary on a regular basis. Angulas, distinguished by reaching exorbitant prices in the market, are the offspring of the eel known as Anguilla Anguilla or, simply, European eel, a species of blue fish that crosses the Atlantic to spawn in fresh water and that, for years, has been considered a peculiar animal and, in some cases, even mythological. Gula, on the other hand, is a surimi preparation that imitates the appearance of angulas but is far from being the same.
What are gulas
Although its name and appearance may remind us of baby eels, nothing could be further from the truth. Neither its taste nor its price are similar to that of baby eels, since baby eels are, in fact, a surimi made from different fish and starch that resembles, in appearance, the greyish colour of sautéed baby eels.
Gula itself is a trademark registered by a popular Spanish company that, thanks to an interesting marketing campaign, managed to position this conglomerate of fish as a gourmet product within the market, with a very notable presence in the media during the Christmas period.
What are elvers?
The elver is the offspring of the eel. With an elongated body and a size of almost eight centimetres, it is slimy and slippery, with characteristic transparency when alive. This is a fish that abounds in the Sargasso Sea, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, whose waters are characterised by being calm, of an intense blue and with visibility that exceeds sixty metres in depth; it receives its name from the presence of numerous Sargassum algae which, together with the conditions described, makes it a perfect area for the reproduction of this species far from predators such as sharks or tuna.
Angulas are the only fry that can be caught in Spain. Present in both the Cantabrian and the Mediterranean, 2023 was the last year that angulas could be caught – as a sport fish – in Basque rivers after the new European Union regulations came into force. There are some morphological differences in the angulas of the two basins, with white-backed angulas being the most common in Mediterranean waters and black-backed angulas being the most common in the Cantabrian.
Their diversity is based on the time the elver spends in fresh water, as the life cycle of this fish is that it is born in salt water, lives in freshwater for its entire life, but returns to waters with a high salt concentration to reproduce and die. Beyond the physical discrepancy, it cannot be said that one type of elver is better than another.
What are eels?
The eel is a type of fish that can reach two metres in length, with a flattened head and enormous toothed mouth, and whose skin is practically devoid of scales, making it slippery to the touch. Its main characteristic is that it spends most of its life maturity in freshwater despite having been born in salt water and that, when it is time to reproduce, it returns to the Sargasso Sea.
This fact has been studied for more than a century by various scientists and oceanographers, such as the Danish Johannes Schmidt who, in the 1920s, was able to validate the theory that eels return to their birthplace to spawn, in a very similar way to conger eels. Before this study, legends believed that eels returned to this point in the Atlantic to spawn in the extinct rivers of Atlantis.
Gulas, angulas, and eels, are they the same? Differences
Considered a gastronomic delight or a simple industrial product, angulas, eels, and gulas have a series of differences in size, shape, color, capture method and even price.
The elver and the eel are fish, the gula is not.
The elver and the eel are the same animal but in different stages of growth. The elver is the fry of the eel while the latter is the mature stage of the elver. On the other hand, the gula has nothing to do with fish since it is an industrial product based on different types of fish and starch.
Size and shape: gluttony, an imitator
The elver can reach up to eight centimetres in length, with a gelatinous and oval texture. The eel reaches a size of almost one metre, with captured specimens that can reach up to two metres in length. The gula, which imitates the elver in shape and size, is sold at a size similar to it.
Fishing methods… if they are fish
Angula and eel fishing still have an important artisanal component. While eel is caught using the “correntina” method or by casting with a rod, eel is caught using a sophisticated grid and funnel method that allows it to be caught without disturbing the specimens. As you can imagine, there is little fishing involved with angula.
The capture of elvers is a delicate and precise process that is becoming increasingly complicated due to the reduction in the elver population. Overfishing, encouraged by the presence of reservoirs near river mouths, means that only five percent of the population that existed in the 1980s is monitored.
Baby eels arrive at the mouths of rivers to begin their life cycle in freshwater; at this point, during the last weeks of autumn and the first weeks of winter, the catches are made. The tradition of this characteristic fish is such in some places that gastronomic competitions are held there, such as the popular Angula Festival in San Juan de la Arena (Asturias) —the first weekend in March— in one of the places with the greatest angulera tradition in all of Spain.
The first catch of the season is a milestone that is celebrated with prices of over a thousand euros per kilo. A culinary treat that is distributed and marketed without hardly altering the product and that has allowed an almost century-old tradition to be kept alive in many regions of the Cantabrian and Mediterranean, such as the Ebro Delta or the Albufera in Valencia. In fact, these two enclaves are a true refuge for eel breeding, given that there are no barriers to its life cycle becoming a success.
When and where they are caught
The eel has a much longer fishing season than the elver. Eels can be caught in the upper courses of rivers with calm waters as well as in places where their population is higher, such as the Ebro Delta or the Albufera in Valencia. The elver, on the other hand, is caught between the months of November and March, and this is a capricious fishing season since it depends on the lunar cycle and the tides. It is caught at night, avoiding light, and at the mouths of rivers where seawater mixes with fresh water.
Color differences
We can find white-backed or black-backed elves. The former is abundant in the waters of the Mediterranean while the latter is native to the Cantabrian Sea. Contrary to popular belief, there are no differences in the quality of elvers based on the colour of their backs, which is more a matter of culinary culture. The reason for this morphological change is due to the time the elver spends in fresh water. Gula is a substitute that has the colour of cooked elver.
Price: Angula is a gourmet product that is affordable to a few
The characteristics of the elver make it considered a gourmet product, with the first catches costing around a thousand euros per kilo. Eel, on the other hand, is offered for an average of twenty-five euros per kilo – depending on the cuts. Gula costs around seven euros in ready-to-eat portion packs.
Where to buy: gulas and eels in Longa, gula in supermarket
Both elvers and angulas are distributed and marketed through the fish markets of the ports of the Cantabrian Sea or the Mediterranean. If we are looking for a quality and fresh product, we must go to the traditional markets and food markets. On the other hand, we can easily find angulas on the main supermarket shelves.
Recipes and preparations
The characteristics of the gula, as surimi, mean that it does not have many possibilities in the kitchen. It is usually presented as gulas in garlic, although we can also find it sautéed in salads or scrambled eggs. The angula has simpler preparations that allow us to appreciate all its flavour, and the eel, on the other hand, has a whole traditional recipe book; from the classic all I pebre de anguilla to the exotic Japanese unadon (grilled eel with rice) .