Cooking a Backcountry Fish Dinner

I came across this easy way to prepare fish in the back country. It also has instructions on a Do-It-Yourself hand line fishing kit.

Cooking a Backcountry Fish Dinner
By Will Rietveld

http://ultralightinsights.blogspot.c...l#comment-form

I wrap my stream caught fish in aluminum foil and place it inside of my DIY Venom Super Stove and roast it. This thread shows me roasting hot dogs in the stove, works well on fish also:
https://whiteblaze.net/forum/showthr...ighlight=venom

How do you prepare your back country fish?

I've done it several ways. It depends on if I have a small pan for frying which I might carry if it's more of a fishing excursion than hardcore backpacking trip. If I do it's self explanatory. I'll lightly fry usually gutted whole and scaled(if need be) in OO, drenched in corn meal with spices like lemon pepper, dill, tarragon, see salt, fresh pepper, foraged green onions, etc. Garnish with a pinch of sesame seeds or crushed nuts.

If I'm after smaller sized fish chunk up two bites pieces and place in leftover sandwich Ziploc w/ OO and whatever spices I have. Bring H20 to boil and let Ziplock float in H20 poaching the fish.

For the few times I've taken larger fish like a pike, salmon, walleye, catfish, brown trout, or lake trout to eat I'll cut into boneless skin left on scaled steaks and skewer on wetted sticks jamming the sticks in the ground close to but not in the fire. Rotate the staked fish after cooking on one side. I learned that from some Cali Native American Indians on the Klamath River who subsist on salmon.

For some smallish fish like med size trout, smallmouth, largemouth, and crappie I'll fillet, liberally rub on OO and some spices, and roast on a stone slab set in the coals turning once. If prepared well and the fish look pristine healthy I like eating the skin for the added fat. Roasting some diced sweet potatoes or white potatoes w/ some fresh crushed garlic and sea salt drenched in EVOO mixed with some Swiss chard, onion, Lacinato kale, and foraged ramps or Brook Lettuce is a worthy side.

With small fish like 10-12" Brookies or Golden trout I may chunk up deboned cooking right in my cookpot with whatever else. Fish stew is a fav like this with some Miso and whatever greens and herbs on hand.

Put some onion slices down first, then the fish, wrapped in aluminum foil and into the fire.
The onions keep it from burning if you don't want to wait for good coals to cook it on.
Garlic is good if you have it.

and a little pork fat, bacon is king

I have taken frozen catfish for the "first night" meal. A small frying pan, small Baggie of cornmeal & seasonings, a bit of vegetable oil, and a side of small red potatoes with butter & parsley make the evening worth all the climbs. I once had a whole troop of Boy Scouts standing around my tent site practically drooling on my stove because my meal smelled so good. I really like to cook (and eat well) after a long day of hiking.

ooohlalaa :-)

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For the few times I've taken larger fish like a pike, salmon, walleye, catfish, brown trout, or lake trout to eat I'll cut into boneless skin left on scaled steaks and skewer on wetted sticks jamming the sticks in the ground close to but not in the fire. Rotate the staked fish after cooking on one side. I learned that from some Cali Native American Indians on the Klamath River who subsist on salmon.

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I'm going to try that method soon :-) thanks for sharing that.

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and a little pork fat, bacon is king

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that it so true :-)

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and roast on a stone slab set in the coals turning once.

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Gee, gotta try that also........making me hungry for fish. Yesterday my wife made deliciuos salmon patties. Leftovers will be consumed in a few minutes.

Several years ago during a week-long canoe trip in Quetico with high school students from Toronto, a very bright Chinese student showed us on way his family how cooks fish.

He took a nice size pickerel (walleye, to some of you) and gutted it. He put a sheet of birch bark from a dead tree and set is on top of three ping-pong-ball-sized stones in the bottom of a pot and put enough water to almost touch the birchbark. The fish was curled into the pot and the lid was put on. He put the pot over a good bed of hardwood coals and simmered the pot without opening it for at least twenty minutes. Then he quickly opened up the lid and used a knife to test if the flesh came free from the spine. After a few minutes more, he removed the fish and served it. The leader of the trip was offered a cooked eyeball as he regarded it as the tastiest tidbit. (The kid who caught the fish got the other on.) The cheeks were another delicacy, small but sweet!

I should add that once I recognized what he was doing, I quickly gathered a handful of Sweet Gale (Myrica gale, a relative of Bayberry) and put them around the fish. They imparted a fine flavour!

The steamed fish was excellent! Simple to prepare, with no waste.

And I've not tried this at home …

I am an avid fisherman. Most of my backpacking or camping trips revolve around fishing or hunting. When going ultra light backpacking I will season my fish after cleaning it and throw it directly into the coals. Eat it like corn on the cob. When camping my favorite recipe is called Olympic Walleye. You can Google it. It is also great for beef, pork, and chicken.

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Originally Posted by Patriot76

I am an avid fisherman. Most of my backpacking or camping trips revolve around fishing or hunting. When going ultra light backpacking I will season my fish after cleaning it and throw it directly into the coals. Eat it like corn on the cob. When camping my favorite recipe is called Olympic Walleye. You can Google it. It is also great for beef, pork, and chicken.

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i worked with a fella who said an old timer taught him to smear bank mud or clay all over the yellow perch they caught locally and that hardens in the hot fire and steams em and seals in the juices...pretty slick.

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Originally Posted by rocketsocks

i worked with a fella who said an old timer taught him to smear bank mud or clay all over the yellow perch they caught locally and that hardens in the hot fire and steams em and seals in the juices...pretty slick.

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This can work with fish and seafood wrapped or layered in damp moss or seaweed steamed over a fire on the beach. It's a favorite way to have a beach party in areas like Nantucket. It's similar to the way we cook in imus(underground ovens) in Hawaii at luaus. On freshwater lakes moss is usually available or one can use slabs of tree bark to hold the fish.

Yum! I especially thank you for the detailed directions!!!

While acquiring the fish, let whatever dehydrated vegetables look good start to soak.
Once the fish is caught, cleaned, and scaled, cut it into pieces.
Set real rice (not instant) in the bottom of the cookpot. Layer the now-mostly-rehydrated vegetables on top, then the fish. Season as desired and cover.
Put to boil on the Penny Stove with a double portion (1½ oz) of fuel. Once steam emerges from under the lid, put the simmer ring on the stove, and give it about 20-25 minutes until the rice is done. It doesn't hurt it if the stove goes out in the last few minutes, but do NOT uncover until it's done.


I've also tried a sort of fish curry, with dehydrated vegetables, dried coconut and dried mango, thickened with cornstarch (much less fuel and mess than flour), simmered up while instant rice and dehydrated dal were freezer-bag cooking. Wasn't bad.

Gary aka DrZOOZ of Zia Gear makes an UL titanium grill (less than an ounce) that is great for cooking a fish over a fire, if it's OK to make a fire in the area you are cooking. You can get these from him on my site. See http://qiwiz.net/StoveAccessories.html and http://qiwiz.net/ZiaGrills2014.html for more information.

No grill needed, cook right on the coals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=313AcRreTrk

In my teens we fished lake Michigan shoreline for a fish called "smelt". Easy to clean and no bones to worry about. A gill net was needed to catch them. we fished at night and would bring utensils to cook them as we fished.........good times were had :-)

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Originally Posted by zelph

No grill needed, cook right on the coals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=313AcRreTrk

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He does cook on the coals with an unused grill to his left. I guess he uses his grill for something else. Nice example of no utensil cooking and eating (other than a knife). Thanks for sharing.

More good ideas. Thank you folks.

Back in the day......prehistoric :-) Native Americans dug a pit, lined it with large leaves(maybe skunk cabbage) or water lilies, placed fish onto leaves and then another layer of leaves and then hot rocks taken out of campfire and then another thick layer of leaves, covered with earth and let bake for x amount of time till done.

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Originally Posted by zelph

Back in the day......prehistoric :-) Native Americans dug a pit, lined it with large leaves(maybe skunk cabbage) or water lilies, placed fish onto leaves and then another layer of leaves and then hot rocks taken out of campfire and then another thick layer of leaves, covered with earth and let bake for x amount of time till done.

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...a forerunner to the modern casserole dish :D