Viator: …I did never eat so good a fish in my life. This fish is infinitely better than any I ever tasted of the kind in my life. ‘T is quite another thing than our Trouts about London.
Piscator: You would say so, if that Trout you eat were of the right season; but pray eat of the Grayling, which, upon my word, at this time, is by much the better fish.
Viator: In earnest, and so it is. And I have one request to make to you, which is, that as you have taught me to catch Trout and Grayling, you will now teach me how to dress them as they are to be dressed; which, questionless, is of all other the best way.
Piscator: That I will, Sir, with all my heart; and am glad you like them so well, as to make the request. And they are dressed thus: –
Take your Trout, wash, and dry him with a clean napkin; then open hime, and, having taken out his guts, and all the blood, wipe him very clean within, but wash him not.; and give him three scotches with a knife to the bone, on one side only. After which take a clean kettle, and put in as much hard stale beer (but it must not be dead), vinegar, and a little white wine, as will cover the fish you intend to boil; then throw into the liquor a good quantity of salt, the rind of a lemon, a handful of sliced horse-radish root with a handsome fagot of rosemary, thyme, and winter-savory. Then set your kettle upon a quick fire of wood, and let your liquor boil up to the height before you put in your fish; and then, if there be many, put them in one by one, that they may not so cool the liquor, as to make it fall. And whilst your fish is boiling, beat up the butter for your sauce with a ladleful or two of the liquor it is boiling in. And, being boiled enough, immediately pour the liquor from the fish; and, being laid in a dish, pour your butter upon it; and strewing it plentifully over with shaved horse-radish, and a little pounded ginger, garnish your sides of your dish, and the fish itself with a sliced lemon or two, and serve it up.
(And who says that the Brits don’t know how to cook!)
As read by Dean Temple on the June 23, 2005 VHV podcast.
An excerpt from Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler
This particular section is taken from the Charles Cotton addendum to the Fifth Edition, printed in 1676. The Compleat Angler is the third most published book in the English language after the Bible and the works of Shakespeare