[RH]

I am really curious as to different methods that some of you may use in preparing trout while backpacking. I've used fire & foil for years, but have not found a good method when fires are not allowed. My particular interest is in light-weight solutions.

[Odonata]

This was mulled over on this poorly titled thread I have joined the "throw the fish on the fire" crowd since then. I still use foil for the smaller fish. Catch and clean trout

dinner_trout

Throw it on the fire. Butter and lemon pepper added here.

trout fry

Enjoy!

the best tasting trout ever

If I am in a no fire zone I have used two pop can stoves and trout wrapped in foil around a basting stick. Use two "Y" sticks to hold the trout over the pop can stoves, It works great if a little slow to warm up.

[Odonata]

OK, this thread is the one I was thinking of.

[guy_fly]

i like the fish-in-fire technique. simple and tasty. sans fire i have boiled trout with dehydrated onion, etc., or even with other soup mixes for a nice addition to otherwise dull meals! and don't forget SUSHI (bring the wasabi powder).

[Allison]

Marylou's poached fish stew 1 fish, cleaned butter water (white wine if you have it) misc vegetables, dried or fresh minute rice curry salt Remove any bones you can from fish. Cut into chunks that will fit into your pan. Poach in water with some butter until cooked. Remove fish, peel off skin and remove any remaining bones. Set aside, reserving poaching liquid. Clean any weird floaty skin bits out of poaching water. Cook rice and vegetables (reconstituted if they were dry) in poaching liquid with curry. Add fish near the end of cooking. Salt as needed. This recipe was the result of an impromptu meal enjoyed last fall in the Sawtooths in Idaho. The fish was the motivating factor, the other ingredients what could be scared out of the food bag and into the cookpot. Tasty.

[McFarnell]

Where fires aren't allowed, we use a frying pan, a little oil, and fry over a small backpacking stove. Does't come close to grilled-over-the-fire fish, though.

[EdgarDog]

Looked around, is there a thread on how to fly fish for trout on the alpine lakes?

[guy_fly]

Some past discussions on alpine fishing can be found at Fish Talk or at More Fish Talk. Also, local community collages/park departments sometimes have fly fishing classes. A good source is Washington Fly Fishing URL. Another source is noted backcountry fisherman, Gerry Erickson, who is giving a class this next weekend! Goto here for details.

[salish]

[Moleman]

Any recommendations on "freezer bag" poaching (the cooking technique, not the illicit fishing one) for trout? I assume you would clean the fish and put it in the bag, and add boiling water. Is this a 5 minute or 10-minute wait? This would avoid the problem of "can't cook over/in a fire due to campfire - fire danger restrictions". Might not taste as good, though.

[Allison]

MM, why not just poach the fish in water, as described above?

[Moleman]

Marylou, Freezerbags are much smaller and lighter weight than pots and pans. I was just wondering if anyone had a sure-fire recipe, like the "broil salmon for X minutes per inch of thickness" you would find in a seafood cookbook. While it means giving up the oohs and aahs from fellow backpackers, amazed at seeing capellini with walnuts, capers, garlic, tomatoes and parmesan come forth from my MSR cookset, the single 1-liter Ti "teakettle" I now carry saves about a pound, and also about, well, a liter of pack volume. I was able to go from a Kelty Red Cloud pack (for a 3-night trip, summer of 2004) to an REI Gemini 50L (for a 4-night trip this summer), in part due to being relentless about weight, and in part due to being relentless about volume. Come to think of it, there's really nothing in that recipe that couldn't be done in a freezer bag, as long as the first step is crisping the chopped walnuts in the bottom of the teakettle . . .

[Allison]

[liembo]

Back when I was a scout on our annual 10 day through the Wallowas, we'd carry a ziploc full of a flour and lipton onion soup mix. Cover the little eastern brookie with that and fry it in butter over the stove or fire. Some of the guys in the troop would eat so much they got the runs, but they seemed to think it was worth it. Eastern brrokk is still the best fish I've ever eaten though... - liem

[RH]

For those interested, I found the following method in Backpackinglight.com (fishing forums): A much quicker, lighter, cleaner, and bear-proof method is to bake your trout, using a BakePacker Ultra-light (4 oz) , a 6” diameter, 2-quart titanium or aluminum kettle (7.3 oz for aluminum), and the alcohol stove you mentioned. See http://www.bakepacker.com/index.html. Check out the recipes at the site. The Bakepacker is available at REI Place 1-2 trout in a 1-gallon Glad Food Storage Bag and bake. This solution will add a few oz to your gear, but will also allow you to augment your camp fare with a large range of other baked goods in addition to fresh fish. It bakes up to 1 1/2 cup dry mix which serves 1-2 people. The fresh trout or game fish recommended for this device is as follows: 1 tsp. flour 2 T butter 1 tsp. fresh chopped parsley Salt/Pepper 2 small trout, cleaned, remove heads (1 pound) 3 lemon slices Optional: 1/4 tsp. garlic powder Add teaspoon flour to bag. Shake and coat. Arrange open bag over grid. Salt and pepper inside of fish (also garlic powder). Sprinkle small amount of parsley inside fish. Add fish to bag (one layer). Sprinkle with remaining parsley and dot with butter. Add lemon slices. Close bag. Boil/Bake for12 minutes. Any small pocket knife or Leatherman is adequate to clean a trout. I use a small Swiss Army knife blade. Reference the URL http://www.2crows.net/h/cln/ for cleaning instructions with pictures.