Today is a special day for my Grateful Diary. I learnt something new – I now know that Smoked Trout do not smoke when they are alive.
Our recent trip to the Snowy Mountains involved a really nice dinner where I got to try some local Smoked Trout. I previously thought that smoked trout was a particular type of trout, that had a smokey flavour. I didn’t really think about this previously in life, as I have never tried smoked trout before – such is life when you live in cities by the sea.
I was amazed to learn that the smoky flavour is due to the fact that the fish are exposed to smoke, presumably after they are killed. Otherwise, Greenpeace and other activist groups would be onto the case. It would not be very good publicity if animals were being forced to smoke, in order to enhance the flavour of their meat, prior to being harvested by people. It would be kind of impossible in any case, as trout live under water, so they cannot smoke.
There was some debate at the dinner table, as I was not completely convinced about the whole issue. I thought that some trout just tasted like they were naturally smoky. Eventually my dinner companions convinced me by explaining that there is also smoked ham – I’ve never seen a pig smoke, so I am fairly certain that the same logic can be applied to trout.
BTW – Snowy Mountains smoked trout tastes really good, despite the cheesy fibreglass tourist trap in Adaminaby!
