Shippers of trout often pack their speckled beauties in moss, which injures their flavor materially; and the housekeeper is obliged to let them stand in cold water, slightly salted, to extract the flavor of the moss. This is a good plan to follow, by the way, when the trout are frozen, as nearly all wild trout are in the early spring.
=Brook Trout, Sportsman Style.=--Clean and rinse a quarter-of-a-pound trout in cold spring water; dry it in a towel. Cut half a pound of salt pork into small pieces; put these into a thoroughly clean frying-pan; fry out the clear fat, and remove the small pieces of pork. Rub a little fine table-salt in the inside of the fish, and when the pork-fat is smoking hot, add the fish to it; turn it three times before it is done. When nicely browned, serve it on a hot dish, and send it to the table without adding condiments of any kind. Should you be able to procure fresh butter, a little may be put on the fish before it is served, but it must be of the very best quality.
=Broiled Trout.=--The foregoing is a recipe for cooking trout immediately after catching them. After they are brought to our city markets from distant mountain streams, however, they are most toothsome when broiled over a declining fire, and require a seasoning of salt, pepper, and a little lemon-juice mixed with the sweetest of sweet butter. Serve with hot plates.
=Brook Trout, Baked.=--Trout weighing a pound or over are best when served baked, though many sportsmen will not listen to this proposition. The outside of a large trout is almost ruined in broiling before the centre of the fish is cooked. Do not split the fish down the back. Take half a pint of fine grated bread-crumbs, and soak them in a little milk; squeeze out the milk; add two ounces of table butter, a saltspoonful of salt, half a saltspoonful of white pepper, the juice of a quarter of a lemon, and the slightest sprig of thyme; add the yolk of one raw egg; mix; open the trout just enough to clean it properly; remove the gills (leave the heads on), fill the cavity with the stuffing, and sew it up carefully. Put the fish in a tin, on top of it place small bits of butter previously rolled in flour, place it in a good oven, and bake with the back toward the hottest part of the oven. The length of time it will take to cook properly is from twenty to thirty minutes, very often a little longer, for much depends on the temperature of the oven.