No. 1296

Trout a la Montagnarde

Truites a la Montagnarde

Score some fine trout, lay them in salt for one hour, then shake them out, put the fish into a fish boiler, moisten with white wine and a little water, add branches of parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, garlic and basil. Let cook and when done, drain the fish and strain the stock, reduce and thicken with kneaded butter (No. 579), skim the surface and strain it again through a tammy, add some blanched parsley leaves, then pour this sauce over the trout.

← No. 1295 Trout a la Meuniere Salmon & Trout No. 1297 Trout au Bleu-Small →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a professional brigade and gives no quantities, no times and no temperatures. The dish is a simple wine court-bouillon poach finished with a reduction sauce, and the whole thing lives or dies on not overcooking the fish.

The hinge: poach below a simmerTrout goes from silky to cottony very quickly. Bring the wine and water barely to a shiver (170-180F) and hold it there; whole 10-12 oz trout are done in roughly 8-10 minutes, when the flesh at the backbone just parts. Ranhofer's bare "let cook" gives no time or heat, and a gentle, barely trembling liquid rather than a rolling boil is the safer reading for delicate fish.
The hour in saltThis is a dry salt cure, not brining in liquid. A light, even coat of coarse salt for an hour firms the flesh and seasons it through the scored cuts; rinse and pat dry afterwards or the reduced sauce will be far too salty.
ScoringThree or four shallow diagonal slashes per side through the skin to the bone. On a whole fish this lets salt and aromatics reach the interior and keeps the skin from splitting as it contracts.
Fish boilerA long, narrow poaching kettle with a perforated lift-out rack. A roasting pan with a wire rack, or a wide saute pan, does the same job; the rack matters more than the shape, since it lets you lift cooked trout out without breaking them.
Moisten with white wine and a little waterEnough liquid to come roughly halfway up the fish, about two parts dry white wine to one part water. Anything more dilutes the stock you are about to reduce into the sauce.
Kneaded butter (No. 579)Beurre manie: equal weights soft butter and flour worked to a smooth paste, whisked in bit by bit off the boil. Figure about 1 tablespoon each per cup of reduced stock, then let it cook two or three minutes so the flour loses its raw taste.
TammyA tammy cloth is a fine worsted straining cloth; a chinois lined with damp muslin gives the same result. Strain before adding the parsley leaves, not after.
Blanched parsley leavesWhole flat-leaf leaves dropped in boiling salted water for 15 seconds and shocked in ice water. They keep a bright green in the hot sauce, where raw leaves would go drab.
YieldThe recipe gives no quantities at all; "some fine trout" suggests figuring one fish per person. As a working estimate, a quart of poaching liquid reduced by two-thirds and thickened makes sauce for about four fish.

A Little History

A la montagnarde means "mountain style", and here it describes a plain treatment of freshwater fish with wine and hard herbs rather than the cream and truffle of the grand repertoire; it is not a codified garnish in the way the classic named garnishes are. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a working reference for cooks who already knew the trade, which is why the entry gives no weights and cross-references its own numbered recipes: the reader was expected to have No. 579 for kneaded butter to hand. The hour in salt firms the flesh and seasons it through the scored cuts; an hour is far too short to preserve anything, whatever else may lie behind the habit. Its neighbours in this section, trout meuniere and trout au bleu, mark two other classic treatments.