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Trout, Stewed
Take two moderate-sized trout, empty, wash, and dry them well. Put them in a stewpan, and pour over them as much stock as will barely cover them, and a glassful of port or claret, then add a small onion finely minced, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, two cloves, a pinch of powdered mace, and a little pepper and salt. Let them simmer very gently until the fish are done enough. Lift them out carefully, and put them on a hot dish. Strain the gravy, thicken it with a tea-spoonful of brown thickening or with a little flour and butter, stir it over the fire till it coats the spoon, pour it over the fish, and serve very hot. Time to stew the fish, half an hour to three-quarters, according to size. Sufficient for two persons.
A straightforward court-bouillon poach finished with a reduced, thickened sauce. The one thing to change is the timing.
- The stewing time is the problemHalf an hour to three-quarters will reduce a trout to cotton wool. A whole trout of 8-12 oz is done in 8-12 minutes at a bare shiver, and the flesh should pull cleanly from the backbone at 145F/63C. Victorian tables assumed fish cooked well past that point.
- "A glassful" of wineIn this period a wineglassful is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz / 60 ml, though "a glassful" is imprecise. Port gives a sweeter, darker sauce; claret (red Bordeaux) a leaner one. Either works, but reduce the strained liquid before thickening or the sauce tastes raw and winey.
- Brown thickeningA Victorian store-cupboard staple: flour browned slowly in butter or dripping until nut-coloured, then kept in a jar. The recipe's own alternative -- flour worked into softened butter, i.e. beurre manié, whisked into the simmering liquid -- is what most cooks will use. Allow about 1 tbsp each of flour and butter for a cup of liquid.
- Simmer means barely moving"Very gently" is doing real work here. Bring the stock to a bare tremble, slide the fish in, and hold it there; a rolling boil splits the skin and clouds the liquid you are about to turn into sauce.
- The herbsA "bunch of parsley", a sprig of thyme and a bay-leaf are a bouquet garni in all but name. Tie them with string so they lift out whole rather than clogging the strainer.
- MaceThe lacy outer covering of the nutmeg, warmer and less resinous than the seed. A pinch of ground mace is still sold; ground nutmeg at half the quantity is the nearest substitute.
- StockA light fish or vegetable stock suits better than beef, though Victorian kitchens would have used whatever brown stock was on the go. Keep it unsalted to start, since the sauce is reduced and will concentrate.
- YieldAs stated, two trout serve two, with the sauce strained, thickened and poured over the fish before it goes to table.
Stewed trout belongs among the freshwater fish that a nineteenth-century English household was more likely to be given than to buy: fishing rights in England went with ownership of the water. The treatment here, poaching in stock with red wine and warm spice and then binding the liquor into a sauce, follows an older habit of cooking fish in wine with cloves and mace, a spicing that persisted in English fish cookery after it had faded from many meat dishes. The "brown thickening" the recipe reaches for suggests a kitchen that kept browned flour ready in a jar rather than building a roux to order. Note too "until the fish are done enough", which assumes the cook can judge it, followed by a time that suggests how thoroughly fish was cooked.