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Trout, Souchet
Clean and empty five or six small trout, and dry them well. Cut four parsley roots into strips an inch long and very narrow, and boil these in a pint and a half of water, together with a tea-spoonful of salt and a tea-spoonful of finely-scraped horse-radish. In five minutes throw in a handful of small sprigs of parsley. Let the water boil up again, put in the trout, draw the pan back immediately, and simmer the fish gently until done enough. Serve the fish in a deep dish with the water, parsley, etc., and send slices of thin brown bread and butter to table with it. Time to boil the fish, ten or twelve minutes. Probable cost, uncertain. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A water souchy is a fish poached in its own lightly flavoured broth and served swimming in it — closer to a clear soup than to boiled fish. Two things decide whether it works: the fish must never boil, and the broth must taste of something before the trout goes in.
- "Draw the pan back"This is the hinge. The liquid comes to a boil, the trout go in, and the pan is immediately moved off direct heat so the water drops below a simmer. Trout held at a rolling boil split, shed skin and cloud the broth, which here is the dish itself.
- TimingTen to twelve minutes suits small whole trout in barely trembling water. Modern farmed trout of a similar size are often done sooner; test at the thickest point behind the head, where the flesh should just part from the bone.
- Parsley rootsNot the trimmings from a bunch of curly parsley. This is root or Hamburg parsley, a pale parsnip-like root sold in Eastern European and some farmers' markets. Four roots give a mild sweet earthiness; a small parsnip plus extra parsley stalks is the nearest substitute, though flatter in flavour.
- Horseradish"Finely-scraped" means fresh root grated on the fine side of a box grater. Bottled horseradish usually carries vinegar, and creamed versions cream as well, either of which will muddy a clear broth; if it is all you have, rinse and drain it and add rather less.
- Liquid and seasoningA pint and a half is British Imperial — about 30 fl oz, or 850 ml. A teaspoon of salt in that volume is a light seasoning; taste the broth before the fish goes in, since it is served as part of the dish and cannot be corrected afterwards.
- ServingA deep dish is not decoration. Each portion needs a shallow bowl and a spoon as well as a fork. The thin brown bread and butter is the starch course — no potatoes, no sauce.
- YieldFive or six small trout serve five or six as a light main course, or eight as a first course if the fish are filleted into the broth after poaching.
Souchet, more often written in English as water souchy, is generally derived from the Dutch waterzootje — roughly "water-boiled thing". The dish became associated with the Thames-side taverns at Greenwich, where whitebait, flounder and perch were served in their own broth with brown bread and butter, and it kept that riverside-inn association into the Victorian period. The broth is deliberately thin so that nothing masks the fish. The frank "probable cost, uncertain" suggests trout was as often a caught fish as a bought one, with no settled market price.