To Fry Trout
Split the fish down the back, insert a thin slice of fat pork. Squeeze lemon juice over it and fry brown.--Mrs.J.I.,La.
Four lines and no quantities, which is typical of the contributed recipes in this book. The technique is sound: a lean fish larded with a strip of cured pork so it bastes itself in the pan.
- Which troutThe contributor writes from Louisiana, where "trout" may well mean speckled trout, the spotted seatrout, rather than a freshwater brook or rainbow trout. Either works here; the recipe gives no size, but a whole fish of 3/4 to 1 lb per person suits the method.
- Fat porkThis is salt pork or fatback, not bacon and not smoked. Cut a thin baton, rinse off surface salt, and lay it in the split. Unsmoked slab bacon is the closest supermarket substitute; smoked bacon will take over the dish.
- Split down the backCut along one side of the backbone from the head end to the tail, opening the fish out flat but leaving the belly skin intact. This gives a shallow, even piece of flesh that browns before it dries, and a channel to hold the pork.
- Fry brownGet the fat shimmering in a heavy pan over medium-high heat and cook skin side down first, roughly 3 to 4 minutes, then 2 minutes on the flesh side. Trout is done at 145F, when the flesh is opaque and pulls cleanly from the bone.
- Fat for the panThe recipe says nothing about fat in the pan, and presumably took it for granted. Render the trimmings from the salt pork, or use a neutral oil with a spoonful of butter added at the end.
- The lemon juiceAcid on raw fish begins to firm the surface, so squeeze it on shortly before frying rather than an hour ahead. A second squeeze at the table does more for the flavor than the first.
- CoatingNone is specified, and none is needed, though a light dredge in cornmeal or flour is common in fried-fish recipes of the period and gives a better crust. Pat the fish dry first or the coating slides off.
- YieldOne split fish per person, served with the pork strip left in place.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, gathered contributions from some 250 women, and the initialed sign-offs like "Mrs. J. I., La." show how far the network reached beyond Virginia into the wider South. The method itself is old kitchen economy: lean fish and lean game birds were routinely larded with a thin slice of fat pork so they would baste themselves, a habit generally understood to be older than dependable ovens and pans and one that survived well into the era of commercial lard. Salt pork was the fat of the Southern kitchen, cheap, shelf-stable without ice, and turns up throughout the book's meat and vegetable cookery, so its appearance inside a trout would have needed no explanation to the original readers.