Cooking Fish w/ Canister Stove?

[Justin Nelson]

Anyone cook their fish with a canister stove? My next trip may be during a campfire ban. I know I can poach it if need be. Just wondering if it is possible to use a small fry pan and cook the fish, maybe wrapped in foil to keep the pan clean, because I hate dishes backpacking :)

[David Thomas]

Add excess liquid, wrap in foil, poach over the stove. I do whole salmon that way over the grill sometimes. Less smoke and fried fish smell if you poach it. Bring a few pinches of lemon seasoning or tarragon.

Edited to add: "excess liquid" would typically be white wine. There are those little 4-packs of plastic bottles, equal to a glass of wine each. Either use it to poach fish or to console yourself if unsuccessful.

[Justin Nelson]

Thanks David. Less smell sounds great in bear country.

[Ken Strayer]

I use my canister stove frequently to fry fish. Works just fine. As far as cleanup goes I use a nonstick frypan and cleanup is simply just wipeing it out. I do move the frypan fairly constantly to prevent the possibility of burning a hole in the nonstick coating. I use my stove on med-low heat.

If I am going on a trip where I know I will be catching fish than I bring the frypan. If I am only going to be at a fishing location one day of a trip then I forgoe the frypan.

If you really like fried fish like me, than its well worth it to bring a small frypan IMO. I do recommend using an oil with a higher smoke point though.

[Justin Nelson]

Thanks Ken. What oil do you prefer? I was thinking olive but know it has a low smoke point.

[Ken Strayer]

There is a great chart on Alton browns web page "good eats ". just google cooking oil smoke points. EVOO has a fairly high smoke point as does refined canola oil.

[Erik Basil]

My Scouts use the Fire Maple 117t/Olicamp version of the same stove, along with an MSR skillet and a "disposable" aluminum pie tin for a lid to cook trout. They've been using EVOO and either adobo or lemon-pepper seasoning, and flipping with a little MSR spat that's safe on the non-stick.

In this image, one of our adult leaders has flipped the pie-pan lid off some trout being fried/steamed and is checking to ensure the fried skin is nice and crispy… a delicacy to the fellas.

The 117t simmers very nicely.

[Justin Baker]

On my recent 10 day sierra trip I boiled a bunch of fish. It's now my favorite method. No mess, no burning the fish, always cooked perfectly. Really easy to pull the spine out once boiled. And it tastes just fine.

[Stephen Barber]

Ahem, Justin, we refined backpacking gourmets call boiling trout, "poaching" – lightly boiling in a tasty stock. White wine (per David), or chicken bouillon, a few herbs, some lemon – excellent! And yes, much less work dealing with spine and bones. My favorite method of cooling fish on a canister stove. Not to be confused with illegally taking trout.

[Gordon Gray]

I add a little water and boil/ steam the fish with seasonings.

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