Much as I love salmon, I've always had a stronger affinity for trout.
This is doubtless because my late dad was a trout angler, and my childhood memory of his joyful returns from club fishing trips, his basket bearing brown and rainbow trout in quantities that were never quite enough to completely satisfy him, remains with me to this day - along with the experience of helping him cut and gut them, of seeing the dead flies inside their stomachs, and finally of tasting the unique flavour of their pink, pan-fried flesh.
Salmon, by contrast, was altogether a different kettle of fish, and was the sole preserve, to my childish mind, of the wealthy. It always seemed cold and remote by comparison.
Poached trout has been available in supermarkets for ages, and I've noticed that cold-smoked trout has recently joined it on deli counters - though its price has been climbing to supersede that of smoked salmon. Just the other day I succumbed to an offer of £6 for two packs of Scottish smoked salmon - around the same price as one pack of smoked Scottish trout.
It's beginning to look like salmon's poor relation is being groomed for a much-needed makeover. And quite right too. Our diets are changing under the influence of global trends, led by Scandinavia, and it's good for a new healthy product from a venerable Scottish company to take centre-stage.
So I'm tickled by the news there's to be a limited-edition cold-smoked Scottish trout product launched by Arbroath-based smokery RR Spink & Sons to mark its 300th anniversary this summer. From what I've heard it will be the most expensive fish of its kind, and is expected to to put Scottish smoked trout onto a luxury footing level with smoked salmon in terms of world exposure - even if not yet in consumption. (Salmon is the largest farmed species in Scotland, while trout is tiny. Dawnfresh, RR Spink's parent company, produces around 5,000 tonnes of trout a year, compared to the 157,000 tonnes of salmon farmed in Scotland each year.) For now, I reckon its relative rarity is surely one of Spink's smoked trout's USPs.
The company's new ambassador, the London-based Michelin-starred chef Mark Sargeant - formerly head chef at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Claridge's - told me he feels salmon has had its spell in the limelight and it's time for trout to take a bit of glory. He and his fellow chefs always associate smoked fish with Scotland, and with Arbroath; that unique provenance is always on his menu because of its romantic, Nordic associations. As a chef, Sargeant - who has Rocksalt restaurant in Folkestone, Kent, and is food director of the restaurant group Canteen - appreciates cold-smoked trout's subtler flavours, softer textures and deeper colouring compared to salmon. It works well raw in ceviche, in kedgeree and traditionally thinly sliced and garnished with hard-boiled egg, chopped parsley, capers and lemon drizzled with sesame oil.
Spink's "loch fresh" sea trout are farmed: they're matured in the seawater Loch Etive for up to four years after hatching in waters in Frandy, near Gleneagles, and Kinnaird, near Brechin. They can grow as big as salmon, up to around 4kg. As they're subject to tidal currents, they're forced to swim so their muscles and fins have to work hard, which produces lean, well textured, more natural flesh than some loch-farmed salmon, which are fatty and pale because they don't swim at all.
No doubt Spink is mindful of the latest food trends report that shows Scandinavian cuisine is the biggest influence on the modern Scots diet. According to an influential group of researchers, this means fish will become more popular as a breakfast choice. (I can see kedgeree, kippers and potted fish featuring in this scenario, but am not holding out much hope for crab porridge catching on with the hoi polloi, though I'm willing to be proved wrong.)
Kellogg's even predicts that in the next two decades we'll have ditched today's conventional cereals - hurrah - and in 10 to 15 years many consumers will view a fish-based breakfast as the main meal of the day. It says we'll still have a desire for past products for the feel-good emotional connection, often paired with origin, provenance or ethics.
If, as predicted, consumers of the future will continue to value safety, tradition and simplicity, but with an overlay of modernity, then smoked trout by Spink, which was founded in 1715, could be a player.
There's also the potential rise of the personalised diet that is gluten, dairy or carb-free, high in protein and low in fat; and a growing number of parents are looking for an omega-3 cognitive diet for their young children. Smoked salmon can be a strong flavour for new or young palates, so trout - which has a lighter "intermediate" smoke - can be more palatable when served with, say, avocado and scrambled egg minus the buttery toast. Its lighter smoke also has the advantage - or disadvantage - of giving it a shorter shelf-life, so it's eaten fresher than salmon.
I bet my dad and his fishing pals never imagined we'd get so hooked on the humble trout.
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