Tips for cooking trout caught in the Pequest?
Ive never cooked trout before and am looking for some easy recipes. Please let me know if you have any tips!
WCBB29 You can bake it, fry it or what ever, It's fish.
After cleaning, I take a frying pan with some butter or the like in it. I place the fish in it and squeeze some lemon on it and cook it up. You can also lightly bread it in a egg wash and bread crumbs to coat it and cook it up in the pan!
Mr4paws
4paws Scale it, gut it (scrape out the blood line), cut off the head, and fry it in butter/oil.
Just gotta pick around the small bones.
Mark Mc. I bake it in a foil packet, delicious & easy clean-up:
On a sheet of heavy duty foil, place slices of lemon & butter. Place fish on top, more lemon, pats of butter & whatever fresh herbs you like. Salt, pepper, garlic...seal it up & bake till white & flaky! I sometimes make a compound butter (softened butter with herbs) & fill the cavity with it for some added flavor. Hubby has been providing some fresh trout from the Pequest we've been enjoying this season. I sometimes throw the packet on the grill too.
Enjoy!
lola Buy a electric smoker .. u get a new toy plus u can smoke your fish and all other meats...so good
Sponge BobI put them in foil with some garlic and butter and wrap it. Then put it on the grill for about 30 minutes
JL lola & JL - Mark Mc's butchering methods are excellent for fresh caught trout. If you are buying them, your fish monger will do this job for you. Then grilling in foil with butter, garlic and herbs is the best! Zest a lemon, sprinkle zest on the fish and tuck skinned lemon slices into the fish. Then the only question is what are the other sides? I like sliced, unskinned fingerling potatoes and asparagus, also grilled in foil with the same seasonings, a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper at the end while still hot. Quick, easy prep for everything. Maybe a little hot mustard and/or horseradish cocktail sauce on the side for the spice hounds, or a mild tartar sauce (mayo, sweet relish, finely minced Vidalia onion). It can also be done on an open fire outdoors when camping. Brings me back to my partial Native American roots (which I recently discovered from Ancestry.com DNA)
DannyC 
Gadfly Of course you don't have to, but not many people enjoy eating scales, and they supposedly change the flavor a bit.
You want a better tasting trout? Go catch one that wasn't fed dog food its whole life and dumped in the river a few weeks ago. Scales on trout? They're not noticeable.
Yes Gadfly, the best answer to someone who asked how to cook a fish they caught in the Pequest River is to tell them to catch or buy one somewhere else. Very helpful.
Scaling a trout takes about 30 seconds, and the larger the trout the more noticeable they are, especially if you choose to eat the skin.
No, Mark, that was for you. My answer to th OP was simple. There is no need to scale it.
Ok everyone has a favorite way, so here's mine.
Step 1. Catch a trout. (Ideally as close to eating time as possible, fresh > frozen).
Step 2. Kill trout immediately after catching, do not leave on stringer for a couple hours.
Step 3. Remove gills and entrails, blood along spine, leave head an skin intact.
Step 4. Heat a cast iron pan, over fire is best on stove works too.
Step 5. Place butter, some shallots and garlic in pan, allow to caramelize slightly.
Step 6. Place trout in hot butter for 6-7 minutes (depending on size and heat)
Step 7. Flip over, cook for 6-7 minutes. (adjust times for size of fish.)
Step 8. Remove from pan, plate, add lemon if desired, let rest for a couple minutes.
Step 9. Eat
Agust All these recipes sound great for trout caught in the Pequest. Wil they also be good for those caught in the Musconetcong? : )
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