Grilled trout is one of those dishes that resonates with anyone who’s ever caught one — or, really, anyone who even lives in Trout Country, which tends to be the cooler places of this world.
Grilling a fresh whole trout or kokanee over an open fire is the natural end to a day spent in a beautiful place, where cold, clean water flows and the pines whisper to you as you cast and retrieve, cast and retrieve.
I had the opportunity to spend just such a day recently with my friend Joel and his two boys, at a little High Sierra lake somewhat higher than 7400 feet. The lake, ringed with pines, is at the end of a kidney-jarring dirt road nearly five miles long.
I’d love to wax rhapsodic about how fierce and wild these trout were, but alas, I am about 90 percent certain they are stocked rainbow trout, put there by California’s Dept. of Fish & Wildlife. Big deal. I was fishing with Joel and his boys, who are little and just learning to fish.
Taking a kid fishing is both a lesson in patience and one of the more supremely gratifying things you can do: The look on their faces when they actually land a wriggling rainbow can’t be bought at any price. It’s one of a precious few things that evokes a paternal instinct in me.
At any rate, it was a lovely, relaxing day, where everyone caught some fish to take home. I knew from the get-go that I’d be grilling these little mountain trout. Grilled trout isn’t rocket science, but you do need to know a few things to succeed — and to keep your little fish from sticking to the grill.
- Gut and gill your trout. Gills impart an “off” taste to the parts of the fish surrounding them. No need to scale, as trout have tiny scales. If you are grilling a large trout, like a lake trout (mackinaw), you might want to scale it. But I don’t bother.
- Make sure the fish are approaching room temperature. This will ensure that they are fully cooked at the bone. One of the biggest grilling mistakes is to put ice cold fish on the grill. Doing this will often result in charred skin and raw meat where it meets the bone.
- Oil your fish, and your grill grates. This will really help prevent the trout from sticking.
- Make sure your grill grates are absolutely free of debris! You don’t need to scrub them with soap or anything, but you do need to make sure you scrub them down with the wire grill brush once they’ve heated up.
- You want a hot grill. This isn’t barbecue. This is grilling. High heat. (If you want, I do have a barbecued trout recipe here.)
- Flip only once. This is vital. Grilled trout is ready to flip when you can easily slip a thin metal spatula (I use a fish spatula) underneath it without more than one or two little places sticking. Flip and finish the cooking on the other side. Basting the trout with some butter or oil at this point really helps keep everything moist.
When in doubt, let the fish cook a bit more than you think. Grilled trout, or really any other whole fish, is actually better a little bit overcooked. It’s the char. We all love a little Maillard reaction. That said, don’t incinerate your fish.
Some people protect the fish with foil, but that’s not grilling. That’s using a grill to steam or bake a fish. Not the same. And trust me, if you follow these rules you will quickly become a grilled trout expert. Like I said, it ain’t rocket science. (I have even more tips and tricks on grilling a whole fish here.)
You can serve your grilled trout with anything, but I decided to make this a nod to the Alps, where there are lots of trout swimming around in their cold, clear lakes and streams.
So I made some rye spaetzli and used a combination of sunflower and roasted pumpkinseed oil, plus some wild greens and a cool vegetable called agretti I happened to have lying around. You can use anything green. A grilled trout is great over a bed of morels, too.
All told, this whole dinner took me about 45 minutes to make. Not a bad way to end a day on the water, eh?
Grilled Trout or Kokanee
Ingredients
TROUT
- 4 small trout, or 8 trout if you are big eaters, gutted and gilled
- Roasted pumpkinseed oil or some other nice oil to coat fish
- Salt
SPATZLE
- 2 cups rye flour (or whole wheat or spelt or emmer)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Some sunflower or other oil to coat dumplings
GREENS
- 1 pound various chopped greens (Spinach, lambsquarters, chard, etc.)
- 3 tablespoons sunflower oil, or some other vegetable oil, or butter
- Salt and black pepper
- Malt vinegar or lemon to taste
Instructions
- If you are going to make the spätzle, do them first. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it well. Fill the spätzle maker with the batter, which will be goopy and sticky, and run it over the boiling water. Do this is batches, skimming off the spätzle as they float to the top. Put the finished spätzle onto a baking sheet and coat with a little oil. Set them aside.
- To grill the trout, coat them in oil and salt them well. Set them out at room temperature for 20 minutes, while you make the fire for the grill. Make very sure of two things: 1), that your grill grates are spotlessly clean -- foods stick to gunk on the grill, not the grill itself; and 2) that the grill grates are very hot. Right before you put the trout on the grill, wad up a piece of paper towel and, using tongs, wipe down the grill grates. Put the trout on the grill.
- Let the trout cook until they are nicely browned, even charred a little bit. How long? At least 5 minutes, and maybe up to 10, depending on how hot your grill is. As they cook, paint them with the roasted pumpkinseed oil, or some other good oil you like. Use a metal spatula -- I highly recommend using a fish spatula because they are very thin and flexible -- and test to see if the fish comes away easily from the grill. It will when it's ready. If it still wants to stick, let it cook a little longer. When you are ready to turn the fish, slip the spatula under the fish and, using your other hand to steady it, flip the trout. Do this only once. Grill on the other side until the trout comes away from the grill easily, again, about 5 to 10 minutes.
- When you flip the trout, start the greens in a large sauté pan set over high heat. Add the chopped greens and sauté for a minute or two, until they wilt. Add the spätzle and stir-fry them for a couple minutes. Turn off the heat and sprinkle salt and black pepper over them.
- To serve, put some of the greens and spätzle on everyone's plate, then a trout. Drizzle a little of the roasted pumpkinseed oil over everything, then splash everything with a little freshly squeezed lemon or malt vinegar.
Notes
Keys to Success
- Make sure the fish are approaching room temperature. This will ensure that they are fully cooked at the bone. One of the biggest grilling mistakes is to put ice cold fish on the grill. Doing this will often result in charred skin and raw meat where it meets the bone.
- Oil your fish, and your grill grates. This will really help prevent the trout from sticking
- Make sure your grill grates are absolutely free of debris! You don't need to scrub them with soap or anything, but you do need to make sure you scrub them down with the wire grill brush once they've heated up.
- You want a hot grill. This isn't barbecue. This is grilling. High heat.Â
- Flip only once. This is vital. Basting the trout with some butter or oil at this point really helps keep everything moist.
Foolproof deboning trick: Once the fish is cooked and transferred to a plate, lift the tail, and reach under with a fork or other implement and gently release the meat/skin right where it meets the tail. Continue lifting the tail and you should be able to pull the whole backbone and rib bone structure out (gravity should make the meat stay down, but use a fork if needed). Flip over and do the other side. Boneless.
I think I overdid the “high heat” on my Mt Lassen (also planted) trout. I was using charcoal atop a small layer of leftover coals from the last cook. The fire looked a little ferocious, but then I remembered your admonition about heat and went for it.
The skin on a 14″ trout was fully burnt in about 2-3 minutes a side, and I avoided painting it with oil for fear of just flaring the fire up higher.
I had to finish it with indirect heat, but the meat still turned out great. The skin? Immolated. Next time, I’ll aim for a little bit lower “high”.
Do you think it would turn out well to cut a fish in half lengthwise (like butterflying a chicken) and grill the halves separately. One half of the trout we got would feed the two of us so I don’t want to cook it all at once.
will be trying this next weekend
Do you eat the skin, scales and all? I love charred salmon skin but there are no scales.
Ron: I do. The scales on a trout are teeny.
I tried this tonight with fresh caught Rainbow Trout, turned out wonderful !!!
Anyone got a good answer to Shaun’s question? De-boning small trout is difficult if not impossible…
Once the fish is done, if you lift by the tail and gently persuade the meat to come off, you can lift the whole backbone and rib bones right out from the lower side. Flip over and do again. Boom boneless.
George: I got them from Seeds from Italy: http://www.growitalian.com/agretti-roscana-barba-di-fratte/
Where did you find agretti seeds? I have had it when I was with my family in Santorini, it trully is a treat. I would love to grow it here. Great simple recipe for trout, heading to the mountains this weekend. Hopefully my boys and I will be able to catch a few.
Re taking the gills out, I was taught, early on, a complete gutting process with trout up to something over twelve inches, First cut from vent to just ahead of gills. Then insert knife crosswise under the jaw and cut forward, releasing from rest of fish. Grab that forward end, and pull back toward tail. Gills, guts and all come out with that one pull. All you have to dp then is scrape the blood under the backbone. It is such a simple procedure, but maybe I have made it sound complicated. Hope someone tries it.
Ah, but I love them trouts!
Thanks for the trout recipe – love catching them, but finding tasty not so boring ways to prepare it has been a challenge. Any methods you’ve found to be successful for dealing with the number of bones?
I love trout, so this is great information! My daughter turned me onto your site, and we both love it. Keep ’em coming, this is stuff we want to know.
Thanks for the tip to cut the gills out of the trout. I have not been doing this to date so have not been getting the best put of my trout.
Ditto the yes, yes, and yes! I do slash the sides and stuff the cavity with thin lemon slices and fresh herbs.
Last weekend we cooked a whole largemouth bass that I marinated with the recipe for sichuan fish from your cookbook, along with the basil vinaigrette from another of your recipes (cannot recall the name ATM). Turned out so good that it never left the cutting board – we ate it on the spot. 🙂
And I want that little grill you’re using there!
Yes, yes, so much yes!! This is my absolutely favorite way to cook trout– thanks for sharing your tips. I like to stuff the cavity with fruit and herbs. I don’t know there is a better meal than freshly caught trout. I’ll have to try the greens and spaetzle combination.