This may be a dumb question, but I see a lot of you folks talking up chowder in camp, and I was wondering, are you guys cooking the fish first and throwing it in the chowder, or just throwing raw fish in the chowder, and cooking it long enough for the fish to get done?

PhantomJug wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 11:50pm:


sometimes we need more proof.......

PJ is exactly correct. In the briefest possible words he has relayed what is to be done. And indeed it doesn't take long to cook fish in chowder. Make your chowder, get it hot and before it gets to thick (the more you simmer the thicker it will get) dump your chunks of raw fish in. In fact at this point I like to remove my pot from the flames altogether and put it into a cozie for the 5 minutes it will take for the fish to cook. The more you stir your chowder after putting in the fish the more it will fall apart.

The exception to that, again as PJ has pointed out, is Northern. It is very compact and dense (tastes like chicken  ) and is particularly well suited to chowder. Just make sure you have the bones out. If you don't know how go on Utube and then practice.......no bones in the chowder, period. Other fish will work just fine as well......just be sure not to overcook.......7 minutes is W-A-Y to long. Investigate the cozie method of cooking. It will save you lots of fuel and your chunks of fish will stay nice. 

PhantomJug wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 11:50pm:


PJ and MT have it right. Overcooked fish in chowder/soup turns to mush. Northern is good as it's firmer but you can still overcook it.
The cozie is a great way to make sure you don't overcook/burn your chowder.
You can buy one, or improvise in camp.
I take those big Reynolds Aluminum cooking bags for grilling trout. They'll hold a small chowder pot. Put your covered pot in bag, roll tight and use whatever you have handy for the insulation.
I use an old piece of foam Thermarest sleep pad that doubles as camp-seat.
Put pot on foam, fold over and use a couple of rocks to seal the ends. Works great.
If you don't make your own, Cache Lake makes a killer fish chowder thats even good sans fish.

I use laker chunks, plus a few drops of red food coloring, to make Jimbo's favorite, pink phlamingo stew...

solotripper wrote on Apr 26^th, 2012 at 1:48pm:


Thanks for the tip on Cache Lake.  I don't have a recipe to make my own chowder, so I haven't really eaten fish this way.  But I'm going to try it this year. 

prouboy