First I should say that I own a Bakebacker and have generally been pleased with the results. I do wonder about the health aspects of eating something that has been cooked in plastic that has been heated... it is hard for me to imagine that at least some nasty volatiles must get into your food..... I try not to cook in aluminum for similar reasons, but do wrap things in aluminum foil, believing it might be the lesser of two evils.... besides I don't like the skin of trout so I am at least not eating the part of the trout that is in contact with the aluminum.

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.

Advantages over Bakepacker: no plastic, cheaper, fits any size pot, lighter.

Anyone try this?

You're making me hungry. Sounds like an idea worth trying.

Re. Jason's idea to use a bag + cosy. The bag + cosy trick is mainly used for dry foodstuffs which need rehydrating, eg. noodles or oats. I expect the moisture in the fish will take a lot of heat from the water, causing the temperature of the water in the bag to drop. It's probably worth a try at home - but because of the moisture content, I think you will end up with warm sushi, rather than a cooked fish.

Stop by the supermarket and pick up a Reynolds aluminum baking bag.(weighs about .5 oz) Gut the fish with whatever works for you. Throw the fish in the bag. Throw a packet of Kraft Zesty italian dressing seasoning mix (or one of the other ones Kraft makes). Seal the bag and throw it on the coals of a small fire for 20 minutes. Open the bag -- die from the fraqrant and tangy aroma. Resist the efort not to eat it right out of the bag. Gently pick the flesh off the bones and enjoy one heck of fish meal. ( If this is the first night out and you want something really great, Throw some small 1 inch gourmet potatoes in the bag and some asparagus tips. You will think that you have died and gone to gastronomic heaven.)

Almost forgot. Do this at home and your significant other will bow down before your incredible gourmet cooking skills and will even offer to do the dishes.

Edited by mitchellkeil on 08/29/2005 12:57:22 MDT.

David, Up until recently I have always gutted the fish, put spices in the middle, wrapped it a few times in aluminum foil and tossed it in the coals in a camp fire (leaving the scales on). It works well if you wrap a couple of fish together in the same foil.

Recently, I have done more backpacking in areas where camp fires are prohibited so I picked up a small titanium fry pan. I weighed the pan at 6oz with a small folding spatula. I bring along a little oil and cut the fish up into small enough pieces to fit still leaving the scales on. In either case once the fish is cooked the scales just fall off.

I'm very much a lightweight backpacker but I like eating my fish. That got me to take the fry pan. But if I'm going to haul the pan into the backcountry I'm going to make use it for other things, like making cinnamin chips! Take a tortilla and cut into small pieces, fry in oil and then drop into some cinnamin and sugar. Awesome!

About the size of the fish, I generally throw back anything under 12". What size fish do others here prefer?

Russ Whitney (Sawtooth Gear)

Edited by rwhitney on 08/30/2005 14:00:07 MDT.

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.

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.

Edited by catamountain on 11/18/2005 20:14:17 MST.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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:

Edited by btomsky on 03/08/2007 10:44:38 MST.

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

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

Edited by craigl28 on 11/07/2007 16:25:08 MST.

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.

Edited by fairweather8588 on 11/07/2007 16:36:37 MST.

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

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.

"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!