I opened my refrigerator yesterday and came face to disgustingly-gross face with THIS:

It would appear that someone in my household expected me to make this whole trout into an edible meal. Um, good luck with that. Fortunately, my future mother-in-law was here to show me the ropes. First, we had to address to issue of the heads. At least the trout was pre-gutted…I don’t think I’m ready to handle guts quite yet.

There’s a little bone by the fish jaw, so you just need to make sure that the knife is placed below that bone to cut the whole head off, and then slice away!

Here’s some video (courtesy of my fiance) of my reaction to the whole fish head experience.

Note to the fiance: please don’t film me upward ever again. I really don’t think I have a double chin in real life. Bleh. Anyway, once you’ve removed the heads, they can be discarded or made into fish-head soup if you feel so inclined (um, ew. No thanks). Next, rinse the trout – inside and out – in cold water.

Next, flop it in a mixture of half flour, half cornmeal until it’s coated completely on both sides.

Stick it in a heated pan with a couple tablespoons of heated oil and sprinkle a moderate amount of salt and black pepper on it. When the trout meat turns white, flip it and recoat with salt and black pepper.

Voila! The trout skin becomes nice and crispy and can be eaten, or you can remove it with a fork.

Before eating the trout, remove the bones by pulling the meat away from the bones and pulling the spine out. There are still some little bones left mixed in with the meat, so you have to be careful to pull them out as you eat. I’m personally not a huge fan of “fishy” fish (like trout), but it was actually pretty good!

Fishy tip #1: Burn a candle while you cook fish to keep the whole house from smelling like trout.

Fishy tip#2: When you throw the heads and any excess meat away, immediately take the trash out (unless you want your kitchen to smell really gross when you wake up the next day).