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TROUT, BAKED (M. Ude's recipe)
Having emptied and scaled the trout, put a well-seasoned stuffing inside, then turn it round with its tail fixed in its mouth. Put the fish in a small quantity of marinade, so that it may not burn in the oven. Baste frequently, and let it be made a fine colour. When it is done reduce the liquor in which the trout has been baked, put in a good lump of fresh butter kneaded with flour, with a little essence of anchovies, a few fine capers, salt, and pepper, if the sauce is not sufficiently seasoned; but be careful when you use anchovies not to use too much salt. Then squeeze in the juice of a lemon, drain the fish, send it up to table with the sauce under it, but without covering the fish.
Ude's method is a whole baked trout finished with a pan sauce thickened with kneaded butter. Two terms need translating before you start: marinade and essence of anchovies.
- What the marinade isIn this period a marinade of this sort is usually a shallow bath of white wine or a light stock with oil, a sliced onion or shallot, herbs, salt and pepper, though the word was also used for acidic soaks made in advance; the recipe does not say which. What is clear from the instruction is that it is a shallow cooking liquor: enough to keep the fish from scorching, and it becomes the sauce.
- Oven heatCassell's gives none. A whole trout of 10-14 oz bakes well at 400F; a larger fish of 2 lb or more at 375F. Reckon roughly 10 minutes per inch of thickness at the shoulder, and pull it at 125-130F at the backbone, since it will carry on cooking as it rests.
- Tail in the mouthThe tail is pushed into the mouth and secured with a small skewer or a loop of kitchen twine through both, which makes the fish sit in a ring. It is presentation only and can be skipped; if you do it, do it while the fish is still cold and limp.
- Stuffing a whole fish"Well-seasoned stuffing" here means a light forcemeat — breadcrumbs, butter, chopped parsley, shallot, lemon zest, sometimes a little chopped anchovy or mushroom, bound with egg. Pack it loosely: a densely stuffed trout will overcook at the shoulders before the centre is hot.
- Essence of anchoviesA commercial bottled seasoning of anchovy, vinegar and spice, still sold in Britain. Anchovy paste or a splash of colatura works; a mashed salt-packed fillet is closest of all. A teaspoon is enough for a single fish, and Ude's warning holds — season the sauce with salt only after the anchovy is in.
- Butter kneaded with flourThis is beurre manie: butter and flour worked cold to a paste, whisked into the reduced pan liquor off the heat in small pieces. Let it come back barely to a simmer to cook out the flour, then stop. "A good lump" is about 1 oz butter to 2 teaspoons flour for a cup of liquid.
- Order of operations at the endReduce first, thicken second, acidulate last, which is the order Ude gives. Add the lemon juice off the heat.
- ServingThe sauce goes under the fish and the fish stays bare, which was the point of basting it to "a fine colour." One trout of about 12 oz serves one as a main course or two as a fish course.
Louis Eustache Ude was a French chef who worked in England in the early nineteenth century — for the Earl of Sefton, and later as the celebrated kitchen manager of Crockford's gaming club in St James's — and his The French Cook, first published in 1813, went through many English editions. Cassell's, compiled decades later, quotes him by name, and this recipe shows what it takes from him: the fish itself is plainly handled, while the interest sits entirely in the pan liquor turned into a sauce with kneaded butter, anchovy and lemon. The instruction is to send it up with the sauce underneath and the fish uncovered.