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Brook Trout, Vallee D'Aspe
Neatly trim the fins of three very fresh, medium brook trout and empty them by the gill without splitting; place in a deep dish, add juice of a sound lemon, one gill white wine, one crushed bay leaf, one saltspoon thyme, two cloves, half teaspoon salt and three saltspoons white pepper, turn well in seasoning and lay aside to infuse for forty-five minutes. Chop finely together the leaves from two branches tarragon, two branches parsley, one branch chervil, six chives and a half bean garlic, place these greens in corner of a clean cloth and press out the water, then place on a plate. Take up trout from marinade, roll in the herbs, dip in beaten egg, and lightly roll in bread crumbs. Heat one and a half tablespoons melted butter in frying pan, arrange the trout in and gently fry six minutes on each side. Dress on a dish, add a half ounce butter to pan, toss well on fire until a light brown, pour in a teaspoon anchovy essence, squeeze in juice of a quarter lemon, toss well, pour over trout and serve very hot.
FILET OF BEEF, LARDED, WITH STUFFED MUSHROOMS Trim off the fat and skin from two and a half pounds tender filet of beef. With the aid of a larding needle lard surface of filet with a few strips of larding pork, season all around with teaspoon salt, half teaspoon white pepper and saltspoon grated nutmeg.
Lay a mirepoix at the bottom of a roasting pan, lay filet on top, pour two tablespoons melted lard over surface of filet, and a half gill of water into pan, set in a brisk oven to roast for thirty-five minutes, turning and frequently basting meanwhile. Remove, dress on a dish, arrange a fresh mushroom garnishing around the beef, skim fat from surface of gravy, pour in one and a half gills demi-glace and two tablespoons sherry, boil for five minutes, strain through a Chinese strainer over the filet and serve.
Two recipes have run together on this page: the trout, and a larded beef filet that follows it. Both are written for a cook who already knows the classical repertoire, so the shorthand needs unpacking.
- The unitsA gill is half a cup, so the white wine is 4 fl oz and the demi-glace for the beef is 6 fl oz. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon — the trout takes three quarters of a teaspoon of white pepper, which is assertive but not a misprint.
- "Empty them by the gill"The fish are gutted through the gill opening with a finger or hook so the belly stays closed and the flesh holds together in the pan. A fishmonger will do it on request; if the trout are already split, tie or skewer them shut before breading.
- Frying timeSix minutes a side may be longer than a medium brook trout needs; start checking at 4 to 5 minutes a side over moderate heat. Go by the dorsal fin pulling free and the flesh at the backbone turning opaque.
- Butter in the panA tablespoon and a half of butter will not carry three breaded fish without scorching. Use clarified butter, or butter cut with a neutral oil, and add more as the crumbs drink it up — the milk solids in whole butter burn well before the fish is done.
- The herb coatingTarragon, parsley, chervil and chives are the classic fines herbes; the garlic is an addition to that standard mixture. Wringing them in a cloth matters — wet herbs will steam the crumb crust off the fish rather than let it set.
- Anchovy essenceA thin bottled anchovy extract, once a pantry staple and now hard to find. Anchovy paste thinned with a little of the pan butter, or a mashed salted anchovy fillet, does the same job; it should read as salt and depth, not as fish.
- Larding pork and the larding needleFor the beef, this is fresh pork back fat cut into strips and drawn through the meat with a long hollow needle. Neither is common now. Barding — tying a sheet of fatback or thin bacon over the filet — gives most of the benefit.
- Oven and donenessA brisk oven is generally taken as around 400 to 425F. Thirty-five minutes will bring a 2½ lb filet to roughly medium rare, but tail-to-centre thickness varies enormously; use a thermometer and pull at 125 to 130F, then rest 10 minutes.
- Mirepoix, demi-glace, Chinese strainerThe mirepoix is diced carrot, onion and celery laid down as a rack and flavour base. Demi-glace is reduced brown veal stock; a good reduced beef stock stands in. A Chinese strainer is a chinois, the conical fine-mesh sieve.
- YieldThree trout serve three as a course. The filet serves four to six.
The Vallée d'Aspe is one of the deep north-south valleys of the Béarn, running up from Oloron toward the Spanish border, and the gave that drains it is trout water. What the recipe does is a wine-and-lemon marinade, a green coat of fines herbes with garlic worked in, and a finish of browned butter sharpened with lemon and anchovy — close to a meunière finish, though the fish here is egg-and-crumbed rather than floured. It appears in Alexander Filippini's The International Cook Book (1906), a collection of international dishes written for American kitchens, which is why the herbs are specified by the branch and the seasonings by the saltspoon.