Lesson #2 Fire is your friend

I admit that I have never thought to much of cooking over a fire. The time or two that I did I melted the rubber coating on the handle to my frypan which aggravated me. Besides, a stove is quick and easy.

But, the rapidness of throwing fish in foil, adding some squeeze parkay and some spices and flopping it on a grill were nothing short of astonishing. Bada-bing! Instant dinner with no fuss or mess.

*Gloves are a must
*paper towels used to clean leftover grease residue from a frypan can then be used to clean the soot from the bottom of your pan
*A thin square frypan is ideal for frying fish over a fire
*fire can be used quite effectively to burn any leftover grease.......and hey might as well get rid of any garbage. Just make sure the fire is hot.
*Use cheap thin foil as opposed to heavy duty foil as it is easier to burn.
*how about some hot water for washing up?
*you will need a grill IMO to make the best overall use of the flames.

I know this is old hat for most of you......but I come from a backpacking background and have almost always cooked off a stove. So other than burning garbage and maybe a night fire during shoulder seasons I have never done much cooking over a fire.

Look into some fire-pit pipes as an option instead of a grill. Slightly heavier but easier to carry and cover. Use an old tent pole bag to pack them in to keep the soot off your other equipment. Strap them to a thwart in the boat.

You lay them across the rocks so you can set your pots on them. Usually in a slight V shape to have a narrow side for smaller pots. To me they seem to be easier to setup in a fire-pit.

They seem to be the tradition in the Themagami region, where in the Q it's mostly been oven racks.

Hey Jim J Solo.......

I picked up a Purcell Trench grill a few years back because of this forum (of course I did). I have yet to put it to use.........now I can't wait.

Concerning the rods Jim Solo talks about.......could you elaborate? What are "fire pit pipes".

Additionally I ordered some titanium rods from Purcell trench as they seemed like they could be useful to help adapt the grill to a variety of situations.

Purcell Trench has been talked about before......I think db may use one. Anyway, they seem pretty slick and now I will be able to employ one.

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Just got back from a trip with my brother. On the first day, paddling the length of Isabella I considered stopping at the portage for coffee and as soon as it passed through my mind I realized that I had packed fuel but not a stove (my brother had arrived as I was gathering the cooking gear).

We were out for five days, four of which  had rain, two long steady soakers. We cooked over small stick and twig fires, mostly gathered from around the fire pits- scarcely noticed the missing stove, if anything cooking was quicker. The days of long rain required bigger fires to keep up with the need to dry fuel as we cooked.

The Purcell Trench grill is a great piece of gear MT.

I have old backpacking grill that looks just like that Purcell, except it telescopes in length.
It's packed way but if I remember correctly its about 16" stowed and about 24" extended.
It's high grade stainless and is great for the fish in foil over a fire.
I lost the tag off of the storage sack so I have no clue who made/makes it.
A "grate" idea, pun intended. ;D

Quote:

Concerning the rods Jim Solo talks about.......could you elaborate? What are "fire pit pipes".

My Dad and Granddad called them "Hobo Irons", but there basically just makeshift pot/pan holders made from old black iron pipe or even angle iron.

You take two of them whatever length you have for fire ring size and lay them across the fire pit.
You lay them side by side at one end and spread them out in an ever widening V to accommodate different sizes of pots/pans.
Old timers/Native people would just leave a set at long established campsites rather than haul them around.
You could buy some hi-tensile stainless tubing, say the length of a canoes thwarts and use an old tent pole bag and some Bungee Bobs' to attach.

If you wanted to get all McGyver, you could get two different sizes of tubing and make telescoping ones like my fire pit grate.
Maybe a short length of chain/thin cable on one end to keep them as a unit.
Old school grate for the ultimate old school cooking method. ;)

S_T covered the fire-pit pipes/Hobo Irons. I used them as an option from the oven racks. Which were big and awkward to carry and keep soot off everything else. I followed the example of the guys I started with, who cooked over big fire pits with big fires. Not the best way.

Your Purcell grate should do nice.

Cooking over a fire is an essential part of camping for me plus it's just easier for actual cooking. (My Purcell is great but I wish I had the one with the slats closer together every time I have steak. No biggy. The one I have is probably lighter)

The stove is for really nasty weather (and maybe pancakes after the bacon is gone) but I often use if for freeze dried meals because I'll simmer 'em for a few minutes in a civilized camping bowl (pot). Burning off some gas also lightens the load.

What do folks do with bacon grease, greasy leftover breading and such when only using a stove? When baking fish in foil I just burn off the grease and fold it up. Foil will burn but it leaves a lot of half burnt bits I'll normally pack out so folding the whole chunk is easier for me.

we bring a grill for over the fire, its 12" x 24" and i strap it up under the seat for portages. half the grate has a pretty tight mesh on the grill and the other half is more widely spaced. it has wire legs that fold down (i dont really use them and should probably just remove them).

contrary to MT, i like the heavy duty foil. it tears less, and therefore i feel i use less. i get the extra big roll (i think its 18" wide) and it makes foil cooking lake trout a breeze. early week foil gets thrown in the fire and burns by the end and mid/end week foil gets packed out.

we also bring a small propane 1 burner stove for fish frys (easier to control temp and not burn oil) and if there is a fire ban/high winds.

Question,
I did the foil cooked fish in the fire this year.

The question is,
Does anyone leave the skin on without scaling?

We had a friend along from Houston that said that's how they do salt water fish and the skin just comes off after it's cooked. No scales in the meat either. We had some smallies. I've done it with lakers, but never walleye, pike, or smallies.

Jim J Solo wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2013 at 5:02pm:

Question, I did the foil cooked fish in the fire this year. The question is, Does anyone leave the skin on without scaling? We had a friend along from Houston that said that's how they do salt water fish and the skin just comes off after it's cooked. No scales in the meat either. We had some smallies. I've done it with lakers, but never walleye, pike, or smallies.

I've done it. When I do a Laker and plan to consume the crispy skin, I lightly oil the fish so the foil doesn't stick when I open the packet.
For scaly fish, you don't care if the skin sticks.

I've seen videos of guys grilling whole fish on the beach in Mexico. Just gut, leave head on and roast over fire until skin is blackened then use knife to peel back skin.

Another method I want to try sometime is to coat the whole fish in a clay type of mud and bake over fire until mud is hard.

Crack open and the skin/scales stay with mud shell and intestines have just dried up.
Your left with just the meat.

Saw a guy do it with a grouse, feathers and all.
When I heard you could do it with fish, it made sense.
Apparently it's a trick the Native Peoples used.

We tried the whole fish trick this summer on McDougall Lake.  We had a nice smallmouth that we wanted for dinner, but didn't have an extra pan to cook it in, so we gutted it, left the head and scales on, and grilled it over the fire.  The skin crisped up and peeled right off with the scales.  We picked the flesh off the carcass, and it was delicious. 

Jim J Solo wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2013 at 5:02pm:

Question, I did the foil cooked fish in the fire this year. The question is, Does anyone leave the skin on without scaling?

We would scale trout and skin anything else as well as cut it up into bite sized chunks for backing.

Butter, lemon:
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Before I wrote that we always brought a few lemons so slices work for trout too with some rice in the cavity. I'm drooling again.

I try to avoid spitting out scales and bones. YMMV.

We eat mostly smallmouth and walleye (tho I love pike too). Usually we fry them because our "Captain" is a master with the skillet -- never oily, perfect flakes -- and we eat a lot of fish sandwiches for lunch. On an early September trip to Quetico this year, eight guys had as much fish as they could eat every night except for the longest travel days.

We also poach fish (usually walleyes or pike), or cook the fish, break into chunks and mix with rice.

In all instances, you gut, fillet and skin the fish, of course.

But one thing that's fun to do is to take larger fish and cook them over an open fire while "crucified" on a stick stuck in the ground. I believe it's called panassing, or something like that.

For those who've never seen it:

Prepare the fish by gutting it and taking off the head, tail and fins (if it's a trout, get rid of the mud vein). Then you ease out the spine and ribs with your thumb. Don't scale or skin. Then you "crucify" the fish by 1) cutting two sticks about pencil diameter or a little bigger, sharpening the ends and inserting horizontally through the farthest sides of the now-split-open fish to hold it apart, and 2) cutting a third, much longer and somewhat thicker stick and splitting it down the middle about half of its length. Sharpen the end that's not split (it goes into the ground). Slide the fish and horizontal sticks down between the split ends, and tie it shut at the top with spruce root or a piece of cord. (It looks like a lowercase "t" with two cross beams.) All the sticks should be peeled where they touch the fish.

Sprinkle salt and pepper and any other spices on the fish, then stick it into ground so the flesh side of the fish catches the heat. Watch and smell it bake. When it's done, take off the sticks, spread the fish on a rock and pull off the flaky flesh with forks.

Medium-sized fish are easiest to work with.

-- kypaddler

Thanks you guys.

Like I said I have done Lakers with the skin on and without scaling. Didn't sound like anyone actually tried skin with scales on in foil for walleye, smallies, or pike. But it should work the same as over an open fire.

ST, Not sure the gals would go for fish baked in mud. But it would be fun to tell them I intend too and see their reaction.  :D

when we first did lake trout we would leave the scales/skin on the fillet. after experimenting with salmon back home, i determined the best flavor/texture was achieved by skinning the fillet and squirting a tiny bit of spray butter on the foil under the fish. by skinning you can also remove the mud line(all the brown glands/fat. it takes out all the really fishy gross flavoring.

i dont think ive scaled a trout in my life. they have such tiny fine scales that stay stuck in the skin its not worth the effort.

Quote:

ST, Not sure the gals would go for fish baked in mud. But it would be fun to tell them I intend too and see their reaction.

Tell them it's a little known "Native American" aphrodisiac.  ;) ;D ;D


I can't remember where I saw it, but some Native tribes used to grill whole NP over the campfire (coals)
by gutting and then impaling a long green stick thru the gill plates. The fish is hanging vertically over the fire.
You prop the ribs apart with a green sick and hold the grilling stick in place with some suitable weight rocks.
Fish is ready to eat when you can insert knife easily from skin side.

Never tried it but I think the next time I catch a small NP I might give it a try, especially if the fish is injured and won't survive.


A few years back my sister gave me this book for Christmas. I heartily recommend it. A wealth of info/ideas/tips/tricks for just about any outdoor/survival situation you can think of.

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Not on stick but still close enough.

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