How to Prepare Trout to Cook

As with other seafood, it is best to prepare and eat trout as soon as possible. Several options are available to you as methods of preparing trout. Choose your preferred methods based on how you will be cooking the fish.

Steps

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Prepare trout to be cooked.^{[1]
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- Select a trout to cook that is an ideal weight of 2 to 4 lbs. (1 to 2 kg). Larger trout are breeders and should be released to maintain the trout population. It may be tempting to keep a larger fish, considering it a prize or a plentiful meal; however, the flavor of a larger trout is not as good as that of the smaller ones.
- Cut off the trout's head and tail. This step is optional. Completion of it is solely preference and will not affect the cooking time or flavor of the fish. To do so, cut up from the throat across the soft area between the collarbone and the gills.
- Remove the guts from the trout. Use your knife and make a cut along the underside of the fish from its anus, along the stomach to its throat. You will expose the entrails. Grab hold of them and pull them out.^{[2]
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- Rinse the trout with clean, cold water. This will remove any blood, dirt and debris from the fish. Blood on the fish is part of what makes the trout have an overly fishy taste.
- Fillet the fish. With the belly side of the fish facing upward, take your knife and cut upward along the backbone. The blade of the knife will follow the outside of the fish's ribs. Then cut down to the backbone from the top side. The cuts will be the entire length of the trout, from the gills to the tail. Repeat the filleting cuts with the meat on the other side of the backbone.^{[3]
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- Take out any remaining bones. There should be a row of bones remaining in the center of each fillet. Slide the blade of your knife just under this row to remove the bones.
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Consider stuffing your trout. Stuffing your trout will increase the cook time by 10 minutes per inch of thickness. You can use a boxed stuffing mix from the store or create a stuffing recipe of your own using rice or vegetables and seasonings. Simply spoon some stuffing into the center of a fillet and fold the fish to conceal the stuffing.^{[4]
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Proceed with trout prep based on your desired cooking method.
- Cook trout over a fire or on a grill.^{[5]
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  Research source} Lay out a piece of aluminum foil that is larger than your fillets. Put 1 tablespoon (14.8 ml). of butter on the foil. Place your trout on top of the butter. If the skin is still intact, lay the fish with the skin side down. Sprinkle the trout with salt and pepper. Draw up opposite sides of the foil. Press the sides together and fold them down a few turns, creating a seal along the top. Fold the ends of the foil upward. You have created a food-filled pouch to sit on top your prepared fire.
- Pan fry the trout. Cover both sides of the fillets with flour. Pick each fillet up and gently shake it to remove any extra flour. Season with salt and pepper. You can also try seasonings like dill or lemon. Carefully slip the fillets into a hot frying pan prepared with a shallow depth of olive oil.^{[6]
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- Broil your trout.^{[7]
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  Research source} Spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Season your fillets and set them on the pan. Put the pan into an oven preheated to 400 degrees. You will not need to flip the fish during cooking.
- Cook trout whole. Decapitate and gut the fish as described above. Then cook the fish using any of the methods mentioned. Once the meat is properly cooked, grab the backbone at the neck and pull it out and away from the trout. This will remove many of the bones and leave you with a tasty meal.
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Finished.

Community Q&A

Question

Is it necessary to scale the speckled trout when cooking or frying whole?

Michele

Top Answerer

Not necessarily. The scales on the speckled trout are rather on the small side, and removal isn't really needed.
Question

Can I fillet a trout that's 10 - 12 ounces?

Michele

Top Answerer

You can fillet a fish of any size, even sardines, which are usually 2 - 4 ounces. But there's really no need to fillet a trout; because of its delicacy, you can easily cook it with the skin on. Simply remove the entrails and clean the blood from the veins, along the backbone and, if necessary scale it (not always needed for smaller trout). At this point, you can leave it as is or remove the gills, head or fins according to your recipe. You can also butterfly it, all of which is much easier than filleting it completely.