Cooking Fish – Ultralight Style

[cat morris]

We’ve poached gutted,cleaned, whole trout or fileted salmon in water; thus, oil is not needed. This can be done in a large lid to a mess kit, or even a smaller pan or pot with the fish cut in pieces.

My favorite way to do trout or salmon is in foil over wood coals with thinly sliced vegetables added to the foil package.

[Joy Menze]

An easy way to add lemon to fish and other dishes is to use lemon Kool-Aid powder. The first ingredient listed on the package is citric acid.

A nice little baking video by the maker of mini Bull Stoves can be downloaded from his web site. He uses one of his alcohol stoves for baking of course. Of interest is that his technique does not use water in the outer pan and inner temperature can be approximated by how a drop of water reacts on the lid. Another similar system of baking is done by Brasslite oven.

[Mireille Halley]

have you guys tried the true lemon? http://www.truelemon.com/

[mark henley]

1. filet the fish, place the chunks in the bottom of your SP 600 mug and put an inch of crystal light lemonade in the cup, cover TIGHTLY with foil, poach, steam or whatever the cooking is called until the fish turns white and flaky, over your backpacking stove on LOW, LOW, LOW heat.

2. Wrap whole gutted trout in foil with a little Italian seasoning or blackening spice. Put a half dozen drops of olive oil on the fish. Seal up the foil into an Envelope and place on hot coals for about 7 minutes per side.

3. Wrap whole gutted trout in foil with some spices, add some crystal light, seal the foil packet. Place the aluminum flashing lid for your snowpeak 600 only on the burner for your canister stove as a bit of a scorch buster. Place trout packet on top and cook on low heat (I haven't tried this one, you may need a tent of aluminum foil around the fish and JUST THE BURNER, to have an oven effect.)

Enjoy your trout.

[john Tier]

Get a small bed of coals… form them onto a ring get a stick …poke it in the ground in the cleared center of the ring… open fish mouth place gutted fish's mouth over the stick until lips are on the groung…. insure the fish is balanced… remove in 7-10 minutes… fish baked… no dirt/mud on body…( drip lemon on cooking fish if you must).

Pan

[matthew hart]

although i love to cook fish while camping i generally only do so when fires are allowed or when car camping and i can bring a heavy duty pan and stove capable of frying or a grill i can put over the fire.

ive tried a bunch of methods over open fires and my favorite is to bake it in tin foil like others have suggested. look up fish baked in parchment or fish en papillote to see the best way to do this only use foil instead of parchment. when done properly the foil will puff up and the fish will be delicious and hit you with a smell that will make you glad to be alive when you puncture the bag. bring along a little fresh thyme or rosemary and put it in the fish cavity to make it really special. leave the head on and dont forget to eat the cheeks they are the best part.

ive also tried the mud and leaves thing (in my case i brought some bannana leaves from the local asian market with me) and it was good but an awful lot of work. it is a fun thing to do if you are camping and have lots of time to play around.

for the person who asked about scaling fish i find the easiest way is to use a spoon or knife blade and you just scrape em off. they get everywhere so it is nice to be near water when you do this. crappie, panfish and bass will need to be scaled, trout will not.

matty

[matthew hart]

although i love to cook fish while camping i generally only do so when fires are allowed or when car camping and i can bring a heavy duty pan and stove capable of frying or a grill i can put over the fire.

ive tried a bunch of methods over open fires and my favorite is to bake it in tin foil like others have suggested. look up fish baked in parchment or fish en papillote to see the best way to do this only use foil instead of parchment. when done properly the foil will puff up and the fish will be delicious and hit you with a smell that will make you glad to be alive when you puncture the bag. bring along a little fresh thyme or rosemary and put it in the fish cavity to make it really special. leave the head on and dont forget to eat the cheeks they are the best part.

ive also tried the mud and leaves thing (in my case i brought some bannana leaves from the local asian market with me) and it was good but an awful lot of work. it is a fun thing to do if you are camping and have lots of time to play around.

for the person who asked about scaling fish i find the easiest way is to use a spoon or knife blade and you just scrape em off. they get everywhere so it is nice to be near water when you do this. crappie, panfish and bass will need to be scaled, trout will not.

matty

[matthew hart]

although i love to cook fish while camping i generally only do so when fires are allowed or when car camping and i can bring a heavy duty pan and stove capable of frying or a grill i can put over the fire.

ive tried a bunch of methods over open fires and my favorite is to bake it in tin foil like others have suggested. look up fish baked in parchment or fish en papillote to see the best way to do this only use foil instead of parchment. when done properly the foil will puff up and the fish will be delicious and hit you with a smell that will make you glad to be alive when you puncture the bag. bring along a little fresh thyme or rosemary and put it in the fish cavity to make it really special. leave the head on and dont forget to eat the cheeks they are the best part.

ive also tried the mud and leaves thing (in my case i brought some bannana leaves from the local asian market with me) and it was good but an awful lot of work. it is a fun thing to do if you are camping and have lots of time to play around. no bueno for backpacking trips when time is somewhat limited as it is a production.

for the person who asked about scaling fish i find the easiest way is to use a spoon or knife blade and you just scrape em off. they get everywhere so it is nice to be near water when you do this. crappie, panfish and bass will need to be scaled, trout will not.

matty

[Benjamin Tomsky]

Great discussion of fish cooking options…. My feeling is that it's best to be flexible and have a few different techniques you can use, especially on a longer trip. This gives you variety of what you eat, and allows you to adapt to your conditions (e.g., over a fire if fires are allowed, fried in oil if you have some extra oil, boiled in water if you are in a rush).

Last year on the JMT, I used all three:

The fastest and easiest is to boil the fish and then use the already-hot water to make some couscous or pasta. While the couscous or pasta is cooking, you can debone the fish and then add it back to pasta/couscous:

[cary bertoncini]

i've used both – a few crystals added when cooking are great

i've also used them with dehydrated seaweed salad and it worked great as a substitute for vinegar

[Craig Lewis]

Reading thru your great thread, I didn't see anyone mention yet using dryed grated lemon skin and dry dill weed herb.
White pepper is a good alternative on fish instead of black.
Sea salt is better than iodized salt.
Craig

[Andrew Richard]

a chef buddy turned me on to something as simple as Kosher salt. I will NeVeR use iodine again.
Try using crushed pringles chips for your batter when frying. Of course it doesnt hurt to dip the trout in beer first, if you have it. Pringles come in such variety you can always find one you like, and original is my fave.

[Craig Lewis]

Andrew,
Watching "Emerill Live" a few times taight me about sea salt which is same as kosher.
Another kayakfishing usergroup I'm a member of has a two year long thread on the subtleties of using Japanese panko mix for deep frying for tempura-type food.
Since this is an UL thread, I won't burden everyone with two years of arguing oil tempture, peanut oil vs veggie oil, water/beer tempture, etc.. Suffice to say pack it along if you want to experiment.
Craig

[john seward]

Twice I've just gutted some fish and laid them on a bed of clear coals for a few minutes. It works okay, and obviously requires no equipment. I've used this method more frequently for meat.

[Brian James]

"So nere is an idea that I have not tried but I think would work….. Put some 1/2" to 3/4" sized stones inside your pot, covering the whole bottom. Then put water in to the level of the stones. Wrap your cleaned fish in foil with your favorite spices, lemon, onions, etc. as noted in some of the previous posts. Place on top of stones, cover with the pot lid and steam heat until done." – Brian Schroeder

This is just basic steamed (some call it "poached", apparently erroneously) fish.

West Coasters famously do this with whole Salmon in the dishwasher. Comes out perfectly, no cleanup.

As for cooking fish in general, in my experience the key is to *not* overcook. It's almost always overcooking that makes a good fish meal just "edible" — robbing the delicate flavors and leaving the meat hard and dry.

Just a few minutes will do!

[Joshua Mitchell]

"West Coasters famously do this with whole Salmon in the dishwasher. Comes out perfectly, no cleanup. "

Wha…?!?

Wow… that's pretty cool.

[William Herron]

I simply cook cleand fish over open fire by running a stick through the gills and out the mouth I cook fish with a variety of spices lots of times just oliveoil and salt and pepper. Dont forget to reposition fish often fish cook fast. I have cooked 4 fish at the same time this way on the same (SPIT)stick. and they came out evenly cooked and delisous and I still had my cook pot clean for brewing coco or what have you.

[Don McChristian]

I use a boy scout mess kits it's light and has a pan and I bring a bottle I fill with olive oil and seasonings…

[Yuri R]

– a chef buddy turned me on to something as simple as Kosher salt. I will NeVeR use iodine again.

What? Iodine is one of the essential elements humans need. Granted we don't have to get it from salt these days since there are other foods that contain some iodine, but there is not much wrong with using iodized salt on the table. It may not always be right for cooking, but as table salt it's perfectly fine. On the other hand good luck eating your omelet with coarse kosher salt on it.

[NJ Drew]

I prefer to "steam" my fish when I'm cooking fish in the back country and I use a recipe I found online years ago:

This recipe was for 2 lbs of white fish, but works great for trout:

4 tbs of butter (use 4tbs olive oil instead)
1 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

In 2 x 1 lb fish portions, you need 2 tbs oil to 1/2 tbs dry mix

Packing: Mix all dry contents together in one zip lock back and bring olive oil in a separate bottle. I use tin foil instead of a pan to save weight when I can campfire cook and a few zip lock backs for prep. If your multiplying the recipe for extra fish bring a measuring spoon.

Cooking: mix dry and olive oil in a zip lock bag, put fish in it to coat the outside of the fish. For Campfire: Take the fish out and put in tin foil, rolling the sides of the tin foil to keep steam in. For campfire: Hot rock the fish on the side of the fire until cooked. For Stove: you would need a pan or pot lid to fry instead of steam.

[Adam Klags]

I find that the most important thing in this equation is not how to cook it, but how to cook it in a way that doesn't create smelly fish garbage. This will help GREATLY reduce the likelihood of you coming into contact with a bear that can and will smell your fishy garbage…

Any method using foil or wrap, bags or pouches that get thrown out or make contact with fish are, IMHO, useless in the backcountry.

If fires are allowed where you are camping, I recommend the stick method. Gut your fish, create a bed of coals, and just insert the stick into the head, with the remaining lower part of the fish hanging over the stick, tail at the bottom. Soaking your stick in water for a while, or simply taking one that has been submerged in the stream you fish would be ideal to reduce the risk of burning.

No prep work is required other than gutting the fish. You can burn the skin (if you don't eat it) and the skeleton and stick in the fire to help with no smelly leftovers for the bears.

I also like the simple method of putting a little bit of water, olive oil and salt/herbs into your normal backpacking pot or pan and just steaming it. Fish cooks in just a few minutes, its really easy. You can drink the remaining liquid or just pour it over rice.

[Anonymous]

"I also like the simple method of putting a little bit of water, olive oil and salt/herbs into your normal backpacking pot or pan and just steaming it. Fish cooks in just a few minutes, its really easy. You can drink the remaining liquid or just pour it over rice."

This method works really well, as also adding chunks of fish to soups, like Thai Kitchen. Easy to clean up afterward, and the fish bones can either be chewed thoroughly and swallowed, or buried deep, preferably under a boulder. Where fires were permitted, I used to wrap fish in foil, bake over a bed of coals, then turn the foil inside out and place it in the fire to burn the residue, leaving odorless foil with a slight carbon residue, which could be rolled up into a tight little ball and packed out with the rest of my garbage. Larger bones were also burnt to an odorless crisp and disposed of with the remains of the fire.

[David Thomas]

>"Larger bones were also burnt to an odorless crisp and disposed of with the remains of the fire."

+1

I'd agree that a hot fire can eliminate food odors quite well. Although that can be hard to do in a campfire on the ground – so often there are cold spots to the sides. On a recent boating trip, I brought a charcoal-lighting chimney and man!, that thing made a hot, hot fire. Far less wood made a nice, mini-campfire for warming and some grilling (asparagus in olive oil and spices). Anything dropped in the chimney got completely combusted or mineralized. One wouldn't carry that on a backpacking trip, but a Vargo Hexagon Wood Stove, operated on more wood for a while after you added food scraps would do a great job of combusting everything. On that recent trip, we were definitely in bear country – some of the food scraps I was burning up were bear.

>"wrap fish in foil"

-1

I'm a little hesitant about aluminum foil because when burning the smells out, it can oxide to brittle aluminum oxide and be very hard to pick out of the ashes. How about a dedicated titanium plate? It would take very high heat without damage, and any smells could be "burned out" without generating any more garbage – you'd just use the plate again, as a plate and a fry pan, for later meals.

[Anonymous]

"I'd agree that a hot fire can eliminate food odors quite well. Although that can be hard to do in a campfire on the ground – so often there are cold spots to the sides."

We dealt with that issue by gathering the refuse into the center of the fire and adding more fuel on top. It took a little more wood, but effectively combusted everything.

"I'm a little hesitant about aluminum foil because when burning the smells out, it can oxide to brittle aluminum oxide and be very hard to pick out of the ashes. How about a dedicated titanium plate? It would take very high heat without damage, and any smells could be "burned out" without generating any more garbage – you'd just use the plate again, as a plate and a fry pan, for later meals."

A legitimate point. We were pretty thorough in sifting thru the ashes for exactly that reason, but I'm guessing we occasionally missed a bit or two. It was buried deep, but still, miniscule bits likely stayed behind, out of sight, but behind, nnetheless. A titanium plate sounds like an excellent way to avoid that issue entirely. I wish we had known about titanium back in the 70's-80's. :9(

[David Thomas]

>"I wish we had known about titanium back in the 70's-80's. :9("

Yeah, you couldn't just buy titanium gear at REI. You had to hike way into an SR-71 Blackbird crash site, salvage some bits. . . .

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