Rodney Myrvaagnes wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 18:02:39 -0400, Margaret Suran
> > wrote:
>
>
>>The only way I remember eating trout in Europe was "blue", or Blau
>>Gesotten. Victor, do you have a recipe for it? I remember it was
>>quite plain and had some butter on it and it was very good but very
>>bony. We only ate it at hotels on vacation, never at home.
>>
>
> I hope Victor will answer, but from my memory. The reason you only had
> it at hotels is that they had to start with a live trout. With the
> court-bouillon already aboil, kill the trout by whacking it on the
> head, gut it quickly and plung it into the pot.
>
> It snaps into a reverse arched back and stiffens almost immediately,
> and the [European Brown] trout turns blue. You take it out and eat it.
>
> If you have live rainbows in a pond or tank I don't see why it
> wouldn't work, although I don't think the blue color would come.
>
> I imagine there is an ideal size range for this also. Some farm trout
> here get pretty big, and may ot be amenable.
>
> So you have to be able to confidently gut the fish in one quick
> motion, like a "herring choker" in a Nova Scotia cannery, after one
> quick whack. It sounds to me like something that would get much easier
> after you did it a few times, like shucking oysters.


I have never chucked an oyster and I just looked and (thank G-d),
there is no trout nor fish of any kind swimming in my bathtubs. I do
not think that I could follow a recipe that starts out with having to
whack ones dinner on the head and killing and gutting it. No wonder
the poor thing turns blue.

Where does trout come from, both rivers and lakes? I remember only
carp being sold in Vienna, Austria being a landlocked country and
refrigeration being nearly unknown at the time. We had no seafood or
ocean fish and the herrings and sardines and such were either canned
(sardines) or smoked (herrings), thus I grew up eating very little of
any kind of fish. We had jellied carp for traditional holiday meals,
but even gefilte fish was something I didn't taste until I came here.

Thank you for your help. I am the wrong person to kill my meal. Even
if I could get myself to do it, I would feel like a cannibal if I were
to eat it.