No. 2611

Brook Trout a la Careme

Truites de Ruisseau a la Careme

Scale, wash and draw the fish without opening their bellies; wrap them up in sheets of buttered paper and cook them in a white wine mirepoix stock (No. 419); when done, drain, unwrap and remove the skin carefully. Lay them in a deep dish, one beside the other, placing them very straight; strain the stock over and allow to cool off thoroughly in this, then take them from the liquor, wipe dry, dress and cover one-half with white jellied mayonnaise (No. 613), and the other half with green ravigote (No. 623) mixed with jellied mayonnaise. Decorate the tops with egg-white, truffles, anchovy fillets, gherkins and pistachios; surround with chopped jelly and croutons, and serve a mayonnaise sauce (No. 606) at the same time.

← No. 2610 Valves' Tongues a la Macedoine Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2612 Trout with Jelly, Tartar Sauce →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold buffet piece from Ranhofer's Delmonico kitchen, built on three components the numbered cross-references hide: a white wine court bouillon, a mayonnaise stiffened with aspic, and a green herb ravigote. The hinge is temperature — every step of the coating depends on the fish being cold and dry and the jellied mayonnaise being at the point where it just begins to set.

Drawing through the gills"Draw the fish without opening their bellies" means gutting through the gill opening with a hooked finger or a small hook, so the trout stays a closed cylinder and holds its shape when poached and coated. Cut the belly and the fish will gape and buckle as it cools.
Buttered paperThe recipe calls for sheets of buttered paper (kitchen paper or parchment), buttered on the side touching the fish. It keeps the skin intact so it peels away cleanly afterward, and helps stop the flesh breaking up in the poaching liquid.
The mirepoix stockNo. 419 is the book's white wine mirepoix stock, built on diced root vegetables and herbs; the numbered recipe governs the proportions, so no fixed wine-to-water ratio should be assumed here. Poach at a bare tremble, never a boil; small trout need only a few minutes.
Cooling in the liquorThe recipe insists on it. The trout take on the wine and aromatics as they cool, and the liquor sets lightly from the gelatin the fish itself gives up, firming the flesh so it can be handled. Cool the pan over ice rather than leaving it at room temperature.
Jellied mayonnaiseMayonnaise into which melted aspic has been stirred, what French practice calls mayonnaise collee. It must be used at the moment it thickens to the consistency of heavy cream: too warm and it runs off the fish, too cool and it sets in the bowl with lumps. Work over a bowl of ice water and stir constantly.
Green ravigoteNo. 623 is the book's green ravigote, a preparation of blanched green herbs (tarragon, chervil, chives and parsley are the usual ones) squeezed dry and pounded, used here to tint and flavor the second half of the coating. Blanching briefly and shocking in ice water keeps the green from turning olive.
Croutons of jellyIn cold work "croutons" means aspic set firm in a shallow pan and cut into neat triangles or lozenges, not fried bread. The chopped jelly is the trimming from the same pan, chopped with a wet knife.
Yield and holdingFigure one brook trout per person. This is a dish assembled ahead and held refrigerated on its serving platter; bring it out shortly before service, since the aspic softens and weeps in a warm room.

A Little History

The dedication to Carême is the tell: coating a poached fish in aspic-bound mayonnaise, masking it in two colors, and setting it about with chopped jelly and cut aspic croutons is the grammar of early nineteenth-century French cuisine froide generally traced back to Antonin Carême, and Charles Ranhofer — who trained in France before taking over the Delmonico's kitchens in 1862 — reproduced that grammar wholesale for New York. The Epicurean (1894) devotes a whole section to garnishings for cold dishes; a cold platter sat under the lights for an hour and had to look as composed at the end as at the beginning. Brook trout were the right fish for it in America: a native char, plentiful in the Adirondacks and the Catskills, small enough to serve whole, and fashionable enough among sporting gentlemen that a platter of them read as a display of provenance as much as of technique.