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This one was chosen as a fine example of how Hem can make me, at least, taste and smell what he writes about. Also, he makes my mouth water.

The Swiss, too, have a wonderful way of cooking trout. They boil them in a liquor made of wine vinegar, bay leaves, and a dash of red pepper. Not too much of any of the ingredients in the boiling water, and cook until the trout turns blue. It preserves the true trout flavor better than almost any way of cooking. The meat stays firm and pink and delicate. Then they serve them with drawn butter. They drink the clear Sion wine when they eat them.

It is not a well-known dish at the hotels. You have to go back in the country to get trout cooked that way. You come up from the stream to a chalet and ask them if they know how to cook blue trout. If they don’t you walk on a way. If they do, you sit down on the porch with the goats and the children and wait. Your nose will tell you when the trout are boiling. Then after a little while you will hear a pop. That is the Sion being uncorked. Then the woman of the chalet will comes to the door and say, “It is prepared, Monsieur.”

Then you can go away and I will do the rest myself.

from “Trout Fishing in Europe,” printed in The Toronto Star Weekly, November 17, 1923

Filed under: hemingWay of the Day | Tagged: authors, Hemingway |