The common brown trout constitutes 5% of bred trout, but young fish are rapidly reintroduced into their natural environment to restock well oxygenated rivers. Adult trout are a golden colour, with spots on the top half of the body, but the degree of colouring depends on habitat, sex and age; they can grow as long as 2 feet (60 cm). Highly esteemed in the Middle Ages, trout was then cooked in a court bouillon or a pie. A variety called the lake trout, living in lake and fast flowing streams, can grow as large as 39 inches (1 mertre). Its diet, rich in shellfish, turns its flesh pink; its then called salmon trout. The same is true of the sea trout, which lives in coastal rivers near the English Channel ans swims down to the sea, returning to the rivers in the autumn. Fishing for the brown trout, lake trout and sea trout requires a permit. They are reserved for private consumption.

Trout cookery Trout à la meunière and au bleu are well known preparations, which are succulent when made with freshly caught brown trout. There are in addition, a variety of tasty ancient recipes from the French provinces. In Auvergne, trout is fried with chopped bacon and garlic; stuffed à la montdorienne (with breadcrumbs, cream, herbs and mushrooms); cooked in a fumet and coated with cream sauce; or poached in fillets and served on a julienne of cabbage simmered in cream. Trout à la d'Ussel is poached, then, the next day, rolled in breadcrumbs and cooked au gratin. In southwestern France, trout (known as trouéte or truchet) is fried or braised in white wine with cep mushrooms or stuffed with whiting flesh ground with duck foie gras and cooked en papillote. In Savoy, trout is cooked au blue, à la meunière (a specialty of Lake Annecy), in a court bouillon (served with a mousseline sauce), or stuffed and braised à l'apremont. In Corsica (where Corte is a major river fish center), it is traditionally cooked with aromatics and red wine in a poêlon (a long handled metal pan). In Normandy, trout is pot roasted with bacon à la mode de Vire; cooked in a matelote with cider (in the Andelys); cooked en papillote, with apple, herbs, cream and Calvados, or made into a hot pie (a traditional dish of the bishops of Rouen). Mention should also be made of trout à la beauvaisienne (roasted with peppercorns); trout à la montbardoise (stuffed with spinach and shallot and cooked in court bouillon), also called caprice de Boffon (in honour of the naturalist Buffon, who was born in Montbard); trout pâté à lalorraine (fillets ground with nutmeg and herbs, mixed with chopped morels and garnished with whole fillets); trout flambé from Périgord, served with melted butter; and grilled plain trout, as described by Austin de Croze: "The trout were gutted, scraped and washed, while some broad flat pebbles were being heated in a hole with burning twigs. The hot pebbles were removed with forked branches; on each was placed a few drops of oil or a tiny piece of butter, followed immediately by the seasoned trout, in which some dimond shaped incisions had been made: hot pebbles were used to seal the other side of the trout..., which were eaten au naturel on large hunks of bread." Jean Giono, a great connoisseur, denounces trout with almonds, a classic restaurant dish that is despised by many gourmets: "Never with butter, never with almonds. That's not cookery, its cardboard making... apart from trout au blue, people don't know how to cook trout."