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Broiled Brook Trout
Split down the back and clean the trout. Brush over with olive oil or melted butter, dust with salt and pepper, and broil over hot coals. Or sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in olive oil or butter, them in cornmeal, and saute in oil or drippings. Garnish with slices of lemon and parsley or cress, and serve with parsley butter poured around them.
A two-method treatment of small whole trout: over live fire, or dredged and pan-fried. Both are quick, and both stand or fall on not overcooking the fish.
- Size and timingThe recipe gives no size, but brook trout are typically small, often under a foot; a fish of that size will cook in roughly 3-4 minutes a side over hot coals, less if smaller. The fish is done when the flesh at the thickest point turns opaque and pulls cleanly from the backbone.
- "Split down the back"Butterflying through the back rather than the belly leaves the fish flat and skin-side intact, which is what lets it lie on a grill without falling apart. A hinged fish grill or a well-oiled grate does the same job.
- Hot coalsCook over coals that have burned down to grey ash with no flame; dripping oil over open flame will scorch the skin before the fish sets. Under a domestic broiler, use the top rack at full heat and turn once.
- The pan-fried versionThe oil-then-cornmeal sequence is deliberate: the fat is the glue for the meal. Shake off the excess so the coating is thin, and fry in fat hot enough to sizzle on contact, about 350F.
- CornmealUse fine or medium stone-ground yellow or white cornmeal, not coarse polenta grind, which stays gritty in so short a cooking time.
- Parsley butterButter creamed with chopped parsley, lemon juice and a little salt, then melted and poured around the fish. Make it before the trout goes on; the fish will not wait.
- YieldOne whole trout per person for a main course, two if the fish are small.