One of the charming things about working for a small independent butchers in London is the real sense of community and encounters with various people, by chance or often. One of these individuals is the delightful Andrew, a bright and bold fish-enthusiast and entrepreneur who left his full-time job during lockdown to pursue a path of curing and smoking trout.
On my initial mention of my work and ambitions surrounding offal, Andrew had immediately offered me his own version of such fare - carcasses, heads and innards from the whole trout he has delivered directly from the Chalkstream farm every week in Hampshire. Without even really confirming, the very next day he turned up at the side door of the butchers with a tray bulging-full of snake-like, spiralling fish spines and bones that a matter of hours previously had been still intact within the body. As usual, my initial reaction really was to just marvel at the beauty of it - the colours are so extraordinary - anyone working with fresh and high quality produce in any industry, I think, takes that moment to just absorb the forms that they are working with. It's an important step in the process, I think, of creating something with those materials - understanding their worth and, when it comes to eating meat and fish, the worth in the life they've led up to this point.
Andrew is by no doubt a skilled filleter, and trout really are large, plump beasts. Those Andrew sources from Hampshire are around 2 years old, and of established scale. But the carcasses, heads and lower bases of the tails do still hold some genuine morsels of meat. I wasn't sure what else to do other than to roast the entire carcass, from head to tail, still intact.
Of equal enticement and reward is the liver and heart. A trout's liver, I was pleasantly surprised to discover, looks rather similar to a chicken liver - in size, colour and texture. The heart is very small, sweet and more pink in colour, perhaps the size of a walnut, or sometimes even a bit smaller. Given the similarities, it seemed most obvious to treat the liver the same as I would a chicken's - pan-fried and well-seasoned, within a few minutes it becomes the perfect, rich, indulgent and powerful essence of fish, and this being the freshest and rawest example of it - straight out of the fish itself moments after being gutted. Like any liver, it has an irony, potentially bitter tone to it, but with a squeeze of lemon and a moment to note the many other levels of flavour - sweetness, natural salt, earthiness - it feels special in its impact both in terms of flavour and in the respectful resourcefulness of eating more of the animal and making the most of what it offer to us.
Pan-fried trout liver, sautéed leeks, lime, corainder and peanut rayu
In terms of cooking the head-to-tail carcass itself, within around 20 minutes at 180 degrees, every element is transformed from a shiny raw peach-pink to a roasted caramel-orange colour. The high fat content in the belly and skin melts, crisps and sizzles in an incredibly pleasing way - and to such an extent as to semi-confit the fish and remaining meat. It is both rich and fresh - indulgent but clearly and innately nourishing as an oily, fresh and responsibly-farmed fish. The first mouthful of a near-too-hot inner essence of trout is just a marvel. Finished with a little salt and pepper, it's one of the most intense experiences of eating a fish, and much like many of my favourite ways to eat, the entire form of the fish carcass invites a full-on sensory experience.
It demands you to explore the whole anatomy and scavenged out any and every bit of remaining flesh you can in-between dainty little bones. I know for many this would be almost a useless endeavour, but that is why I will seek to do it even more. It consumes time, patience, and potentially opinions of manners when it comes to my housemates watching me excavate... but this particular process, what I have come to call 'pulled trout' (in order to help make it sound more appealing, akin to the 'pulled pork' we might think of at a jolly barbecue...), rewards in a really satisfying amount of the most succulent and flavoursome meat. This then goes towards one of my favourite canapés which I have, since gaining access to these, served on numerous occasions and all to a very pleasant response (no one initially considers at all that this could be anything other than 'mashed up trout fillet'). Atop a homemade blini, lemon-zested cream cheese, a garnish of dill, a tumble of caviar, and slivers of 'fish crackling' AKA slow-roasted fins and tails of the fish from the carcass, synchronised little morsel is brought together. In other words, it's your classic salmon-and-cream-cheese-drinkypoos-party sort of thing, but in my mind, undercut and re-elevated.
The 'Troffal' Blini
'Pulled' trout can come from the head-meat, too, although I think I almost prefer whole-roasting the heads and keeping them intact and as their own special vessels. Like cod or monkfish ones that one can see it an established restaurant, trout have cheeks (though nothing close to the scale or actual meatiness of the two former). These are small little pearlescent discs, very sweet and tender. A small handful of them could be harvested and muddled with a light dressing and fresh herbs, I'd imagine, as a perfect topping on toast for lunch. Once again, a fish head offers a glorious intricacy to engage with. Taking apart a head is a wonderful little mess, and also genuinely interesting to see the inner-workings of an animal that, unlike us, breathes underwater. And yes, the eyes can be eaten, and are not at all as despicable as you'd imagine, and have a light, meaty flavour.
Whole-roasted trout head, foraged wild garlic pesto.
Using such an effortless method of roasting or pan-frying, then being rewarded is testament to the point of making the move, and arguably the bigger effort, to think of and try doing it in the first place. I am aware it takes a little bit of an added step or inclination of thought to eat the 'rest' (or, often, 'rubbish') of our food. The thing is, certainly in something like a fish head, there is such a complex anatomy and therefore potential for eating and using. Moreover, it is still 'the fish'. A 'fish' is not its 'fillet' alone. Much like a cow is known not just as a 'rump' or a 'shin'. So, we when consume meat, as fish or four-legged, I feel it really is important to understand and actively consider the entire animal as representing the 'meat' to be consumed - whether our tastes allow us to genuinely enjoy it or not, it is the approach and the understanding and the move to accept rather than reject this 'rest of' the animal.
Follow Andrew's journey and work: https://andrewssmokehouse.com/
There's a brilliant article and interview with him about how he came to make a career out of home-curing and smoking trout. I implore you to try some for yourself.
@andrewssmokehouse on Instagram.
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