Behind the French Menu: Aiguillat, Saumonette, and Rousette; Rock Salmon in the UK. Small Sharks on French Menus.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

The Aiguillate or Saumonette
The Piked Dogfish or Rock Salmon
Photograph courtesy of Greg Dejasco
www.flickr.com/photos/94373487@N02/8592042952/

The Aigullat or Saumonette
The Piked Dogfish or Spiny Dogfish in North America and Rock Salmon, Darwen Salmon or Dogfish in the UK.

and its close cousin

The Rousette.
Bull Huss in North America, and Dogfish or Greater Spotted Dogfish in the UK.
(When you see Rousette on French menus do not to be confused with wines such as the Roussette de Savoie AOP).

The two fish in this post are occasionally confused on a menu, but that is not a terrible error. They taste much the same and when served with a sauce will be indistinguishable. French chefs take these fish with their white lean, firm, tasty, flaky, meat and prepare them as filets baked, grilled, or fried where they will be served with a sauce. They may also be smoked or served as a fish stew.

These fish are popular and tasty members of the shark family; they are true sharks though they only reach 4 to 6 feet in length. Worry not, these small sharks and a number of similar tasting cousins will be keeping well away from you when you are swimming and they are completely safe when they reach your menu. These fish are native to the British Isles, North Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Aiguillat, Saumonette and Rousette on French Menus:

Aiguillat Fumé aux Petits Légumes - Aiguillat smoked and served with young vegetables. From this menu listing, the fish served here is hot smoked. Hot smoking cooks the fish as well as adding a light smoky flavor. Cold smoking cures, but does not cook, the fish.

Meslcun a l’Aiguillat Fumé

A mesclun salad, a green salad, traditionally made

with at least five different salad greens.

Here the mesclun salad is served with smoked Aigulilat.

Photograph courtesy of 750

Darne d’Aiguillat Grillées au Vinaigre Balsamic - A thick slice or steak from an Aigullate, grilled and served with Balsamic vinegar. The word darne indicates a thick cut.

Fresh filets of Rock Salmon

http://www.quaysidefish.co.uk/

Dos de Saumonette, Sauce Grenobloise - A cut from the back of the fish, the meatiest part, served with a Sauce Grenobloise. Sauce Grenobloise is a butter sauce prepared in the manner of the city of Grenoble in South Eastern France. This is a clarified butter sauce with lemon and capers and almost always used for fish. Chefs may slightly change the recipe with some adding parsley or other herbs.

Saumonette Roulée aux Épices Saveurs Safran en Filament

Salmonette rolled in spices and threads of saffron

Photograph and recipe courtesy of Passion Froid.

Saumonette Sauce Aurore – Saumonette served with a Sauce Aurore. Sauce Aurore is a Sauce Béchamel tinted pink by the addition of a touch of tomato puree, with so little tomato you may hardly taste it; it is the color that is important. Sauce Aurore is called a child of Sauce Bechamel, one of the five mother sauces in French cuisine. (For more about mother sauces click here for the most prolific: Sauce Hollandaise.

Saumonette/Aiguilatte

Photograph courtesy of ARC AS Norway

Blanquette de Rousette et Petits Légumes au Piment d'Espelette – A blanquette is a traditional French stew that includes, white wine, mushrooms, and crème fraiche. Here the rousette stew is prepared with young vegetables and those unique Basque Red Peppers from around the town of Espelette in the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

Chartreuse de Rousette au Beurre Blanc - Rousette prepared on a bed of cabbage and served with a Beurre Blanc Sauce. Chartreuse, the liquor, took its name from the color, and so dishes with chartreuse in their title will generally include cabbage and no liquor.

Roussette à la Crème et Moutarde à l'Ancienne.

Rousette with crème and old-fashioned mustard sauce.

Photograph and recipe courtesy of Recettes du Chef

Roussette à la Vapeur de Citron - Rousette steamed with lemon.

Rock Salmon in the UK

The French have not yet adopted the British culinary art of the fish and chip shop where these small sharks are deep-fried in batter. Obviously, when in France, I tell no one about my tastes which include British fish and chip shops. Nevertheless, when visiting the UK I always stop at a favorite fish and chip shop for beer batter deep-fried fish accompanied by chips along with malt vinegar, pickled onions, and pickled cucumbers.

Fish and Chips.
Photograph courtesy of Alpha
www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/3469714129/

These small sharks are endangered.

Limits on the sizes and area of catches of these fish have been made by most European countries. The females give birth to live fish, between two to fifteen fish. However, the females only reach sexual maturity at about 12 years of age and their gestation period, a record for vertebrates, lasts between 22 and 24 months. For the fishing industry, these fish need a very long time to recover their numbers.

The Aiguillat in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan – agullat), (Dutch - doornhaai ), (German – dornfisch, dornhai), (Italian - spinarola, spinarola brun, raccolte gattuccio), (Spanish – agullat, mielga)(Latin - squalus acanthias),

The Rousette in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan – gat vairy), (Dutch –kathaai), (German – pantherhai), ( Italian - gattopardo), (Spanish -gata), (Latin - scyliorhinus canicula).

With thanks to Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2015. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (04/2015) for help with the non-English names and some of the background.