THE COOKERY OF THE TROUT 261 



jovial meeting. Nor ought we to forget Vaucluse, 

 which we venture to say has been visited by many 

 pilgrims, and by not a few illustrious masters of the 

 culinary art, rather for the eels, the exquisite trout 

 and the ecrevisses, than for the sake of the sonnets 

 and the sentimental associations. 



Urban Dubois is fanatical in his enthusiasm for 

 the principle of the viviers. Virtually he lays down 

 the law that a trout is not worth eating unless 

 * cooked alive.' By which we do not understand 

 that it should be treated with such brutal inhumanity 

 as the eels in Italy or the shell-fish in England, but 

 only that it should leap straight from the water to the 

 fire. Though, after all, a dip in a boiling kettle is as 

 easy a death as any. But we should like to ask M. 

 Dubois if he ever extended his researches to Scot- 

 land or Norway. As we remarked when writing of 

 the salmon, the sea-trout runs him hard, and there 

 are epicures who give the preference to the lesser 

 fish. It is obviously impossible to improve on per- 

 fection, and we maintain that nothing with fins can 

 be much more perfect than the Salmo trutta, fresh 

 run from sea or fjord, though he may necessarily 

 have been landed some few hours before. In that 

 case, away with the condiments and sauces, and serve 

 with nothing but the water impregnated with brine I 



