817—Truites au Bleu

The essential condition for this dish consists in having live trout. Prepare a court-bouillon with plenty of vinegar (No. 163, Court-bouillon with Vinegar), and keep it boiling in a rather shallow basin.

About ten minutes before dishing them, take the trout out of water; stun them by a blow on the head; empty and clean them very quickly, and plunge them into the boiling liquid, where they will immediately shrivel, while their skin will break in all directions.

A few minutes will suffice to cook trout the average weight of which is one-third lb.

Drain them and dish them immediately upon a napkin, with curled-leaf parsley all round. Serve them with a Hollandaise sauce or melted butter.

N.B.—Fresh-water trout may also be served fried or grilled, but neither of these methods of preparation suits them so well as “à la Meunière” or “au bleu,” which I have given.