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though in smaller numbers, and if you go to the Rothay Manor Hotel at the head of the lake at Ambleside you may be able to see the silver spinners used in catching the char collected by Mrs Bronwen Nixon, whose recipe I give later on, and who until her tragic death ran the hotel. Char elsewhere may be white-fleshed – it all depends on what and where they eat and the time of year. Char are very much cold water fish, as their Latin name Salvelinus alpinus, also implies. They have their treasured localities and in the French Alps, omble chevalier on the menu is something to look out for. Not all the localities are land-locked. If you get the chance of an Alpine char from the sea, take it. Char to look out for in North America – don’t let the word trout confuse you – are the Dolly Varden, and Lake and Brooktrout.

Grayling seems to be almost entirely an angler’s fish. Only from a friend, or at some small inn near the right rivers, will you get the opportunity of sampling it. The white flesh falls beautifully from the bone, it is firm like the trout’s but lighter in flavour. When newly caught, they are thought to smell of thyme – hence Thymallus. A few hours later this is not perceptible, any more than the cucumber fragrance of smelts survives their journey to the kitchen. Ombre is the French for grayling: don’t confuse it with omble meaning char. Ombre being a shadow in non-piscatorial French, I imagine that it refers – like grayling – to the beautiful grey colour that we associate with it in western Europe. Elsewhere it can be almost purple depending on the species and where it lives. Grayling in England – Thymallus thymallus – as Charles Cotton wrote in The Compleat Angler caught in the winter is ‘little inferior to the best trout.’ Incidentally you need to scale grayling.

Whitefish are not as interesting in Britain, at least as char or grayling, although elsewhere they can be abundant and worthwhile. The name is confusing to the ear, if not on paper, and more memorable names have been thought up. At Lake Annecy in France they appear as lavarets (Coregonus lavaretus) which are known in Britain as the powan. There are six species which go under the name of cisco – shortnose cisco, longjaw cisco and so on – which are sold widely in North America as smoked chub: a seventh cisco – to us it is known as vendace – provides the lovely golden caviare of Scandinavia which I have managed to buy from the Swedish Table, now located at Unit 21, Parkroyal Metro Centre, Britannia Way in London. In America the best known whitefish is the lake whitefish (C. clupeaformis).

These fish vary in size, colour and texture, but any of the salmon and trout recipes are suitable for them. As a general rule, I would say the fresher they are, the simpler the cooking should be – but that applies to almost every fish one can think of, whether from salt or sweet water. Some you may want to poach, but there are trout fishermen who declare that the skin of the fish when fried in butter is the best part of all, crisp and succulent. It profits from a fine but unmistakable sanding of freshly ground black pepper. This adds a marvellous piquancy to the rich skin, without being in the least too much for the lovely flavour of the fish inside it.

BAKED TROUT IN A SOUFFLÉ CHEESE SAUCE

This is a lovely dish from the Sharrow Bay Hotel on Ullswater, one of the most beautifully placed and best-fed hotels in Britain. The recipe is intended for the best wild Lakeland trout, but it can be worth doing with top quality farm trout. Or, better, with large fillets of sole or other reputable flounder.

Serves 4

4 trout, cleaned

milk

seasoned flour

clarified butter*

SAUCE

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon plain flour

300 ml (10 fl oz) single cream or milk, heated

2 egg yolks

75 g (2½ oz) grated Double Gloucester or good hard cheese

¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

salt, pepper

6 egg whites

Remove fins from the trout, but leave heads and tails in place. Cut them along the belly from head to tail, then turn them backbone