How to gut, prepare and cook a trout

Continuing along the fish theme this week, some of our recent B&B guests went fishing and brought us home two brown trout - such a treat and we were thrilled!

I thought I'd whip a quick video and blog post together to show you how to gut and prepare a trout and then cook it.

A quick backstory to begin! One of the reasons I started Ask Charlie is because I was watching the Durrells. Louisa Durrell was teaching two girls how to fillet and prepare fish because they had grown up with staff and had no practical skills - and so the idea for Ask Charlie was born!

So let's get stuck in!

First, you need a sharp knife - as sharp as you can get it.

Very carefully, turn the fish upside down, hold firmly and cut from towards the base of the tail to the base of the head, until just level with the pectoral fins.

Turn your fish upright. Cut down from the base of the head to those pectoral fins at a slight angle, but don't take the knife all the way through. keep a nice firm grip on your fish as it can be a little bit slippery.

Using kitchen scissors, hold the fish over a bowl and make those final cuts all the way through to release the head from the body. Pull to remove the guts into the bowl. Remove any other guts inside the body.

You'll notice a black section running along the spine, remove as much of that as you can using your thumb or a smaller knife.

Give your fish a really good rinse under cold water and get it as clean as you can.

You can cook it from this point, leave it in the fridge sat on a platter of ice cubes and covered in cling film to keep them hydrated, or freeze.

To cook, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Layer some tinfoil and baking parchment onto a baking tray, big enough to wrap around the fish like a parcel.

Lay your trout fillet onto the baking parchment and place lemon slices inside with a little sea salt and some roughly chopped parsley (or your herb of choice). Drizzle some olive oil inside, then pop a little on the outside with some more salt and parsley.

Wrap the fish inside the baking parchment and tin foil. Roll the edges to secure everything inside.

Pop into the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, or a little shorter/longer as per the weight of the fish.

Remove from the oven and carefully unwrap the parcel, be sure to keep the juices.

To fillet, cut carefully along the natural line up the trout. Take off the fins and chop through the tail to remove it.

Carefully lift the fillet away from the bones, flip it over to show the meat and place it onto a platter.

Cut off the back fin, and roll the top of the fish back to expose the spine.

Lift up the tail and remove the spine. Use that to make fish stock!

Scrape off the lemons, and remove any other little bones you see along the way. Move that second fillet over to the platter.

I like to serve with freshly squeezed lemon, a sprinkle of fresh parsley and some of the cooking juices.

These principles are the same with most fish so a great skill to learn, and now you know!

Love Charlie x