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Boundary Waters Quetico Forum BWCA Food and Recipes Favorite way to cook fish in the BWCA |
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05/01/2016 02:57PM (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Looking at what you guys bring to cook your fish in the BWCA....
Foil?
Lemon?
Special seasoning?
We like frying fish - but we're not going to bring in "that much" oil to do that... so wondering how you like to cook your fish!
**** sorry I didn't see the main thread of "fish recipes" ****** at the top.
Foil?
Lemon?
Special seasoning?
We like frying fish - but we're not going to bring in "that much" oil to do that... so wondering how you like to cook your fish!
**** sorry I didn't see the main thread of "fish recipes" ****** at the top.
“The Wilderness holds answers to more questions than we have yet learned to ask.” - Nancy Newhall
05/02/2016 12:01PM
Fillet and dry the meat well. Then rub just enough olive oil on them to get seasoning to stick. Oil the grate heavily so they don't stick.
Can use squeeze butter instead of olive oil on the fillets - great flavor when carmelized over fire. If you have one - bring a burger basket (with long handle) and let the kids roast the fillets while you do other things.
Broil right over a camp fire - and smoke is a GOOD flavor adder.
Best you will ever get - in the woods or any high end restaurant.
Old Hoosier
Can use squeeze butter instead of olive oil on the fillets - great flavor when carmelized over fire. If you have one - bring a burger basket (with long handle) and let the kids roast the fillets while you do other things.
Broil right over a camp fire - and smoke is a GOOD flavor adder.
Best you will ever get - in the woods or any high end restaurant.
Old Hoosier
05/03/2016 03:50PM
I never know how I am going to feel at the end of the day or what the weather will be, so I cover all my bases. I don't deep fry either, just enough ghee/canola oil to get it going if I am cooking it in a pan. I bring zatarains fish fry & 2 small shakers of spice blends. Old bay & Montreal steak seasoning from Penzeys. I bring a few folded sheets of non-stick Reynolds wrap if I feel like dusting with spices & cooking over the fire grate. I don't bring any extra tools for cooking over the campfire, so fish in foil packets is my way of enjoying fish that way.
It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop. -Confucius
05/09/2016 08:58PM
Ran out of crisco last year with a couple days left. We bank on eating fish every night, so obviously we had to think of something. Best thing that ever happened.
We always bring a bunch of add boiling water pasta sides you get from the grocery. Alfredo-style. subsitute powdered milk.
We thought to ourselves, "Gee, I wonder if we could boil the walleye in chunks and then just add it to pasta?!"
YES! It's killer!!
Be sure to throw a ton of Cajun spice, salt, and pepper in the water while the fish is boiling. Gives it some kick
Throw it on top of the pasta you cooked separately.
Boom----brand new way to enjoy bwca fish!
We always bring a bunch of add boiling water pasta sides you get from the grocery. Alfredo-style. subsitute powdered milk.
We thought to ourselves, "Gee, I wonder if we could boil the walleye in chunks and then just add it to pasta?!"
YES! It's killer!!
Be sure to throw a ton of Cajun spice, salt, and pepper in the water while the fish is boiling. Gives it some kick
Throw it on top of the pasta you cooked separately.
Boom----brand new way to enjoy bwca fish!
05/11/2016 11:15PM
Fish Corn Chowder
My wife dehydrates ingredients and puts together some excellent corn chowder recipes that go into plastic bags. Get the soup boiling, and drop in big chunks of filets. Only boil for a couple minutes or they get soggy and fall apart. This is great with white or pink fish. I have also had luck doing the same thing with pre-made dehydrated soups like the Bear Creek soups you can get from just about any grocery store.
Tin Foil Lake Trout
This is my favorite ever. Catch a nice eater lake trout ~24". Rinse off as much slime as possible, cut off the head and gut. Stuff the inside of the trout with onions and a lemon slice, put in a goodly splash of olive oil and sprinkle with lemon pepper. Wrap the whole thing tight with aluminum foil. Place the package on the fire grate and cook over the fire until the foil starts charring. Flip and cook until charring again. Pick the big chunks of meat off with a fork and eat. The skin on trout is edible and tasty.
My wife dehydrates ingredients and puts together some excellent corn chowder recipes that go into plastic bags. Get the soup boiling, and drop in big chunks of filets. Only boil for a couple minutes or they get soggy and fall apart. This is great with white or pink fish. I have also had luck doing the same thing with pre-made dehydrated soups like the Bear Creek soups you can get from just about any grocery store.
Tin Foil Lake Trout
This is my favorite ever. Catch a nice eater lake trout ~24". Rinse off as much slime as possible, cut off the head and gut. Stuff the inside of the trout with onions and a lemon slice, put in a goodly splash of olive oil and sprinkle with lemon pepper. Wrap the whole thing tight with aluminum foil. Place the package on the fire grate and cook over the fire until the foil starts charring. Flip and cook until charring again. Pick the big chunks of meat off with a fork and eat. The skin on trout is edible and tasty.
05/16/2016 03:50PM
quote Captn Tony: "Fried in lard, it doesn't stick. Plus I get plenty when I get a hog butchered."
"Excuse me, you guys ever hear about the ongoing cholesterol problem in the country?"
~ Vincent LaGuardia Gambini
from My Cousin Vinny
"Keep close to Nature's heart, yourself; and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." ~ John Muir
05/17/2016 01:02PM
We used to fry SMB and walleye all the time, but breading and frying fish out in the woods can be a mess and pain.
Over the last couple of years we've tried to find alternatives to frying.
A couple of our favorites are "baking" fillets unwrapped on heavy foil right in the fire with a little butter, onion and lemon. Completely wrapping them will more or less steam them. (that's good, too, but doesn't give them any "smokey" flavor)
The second way, and this is a little unorthodox, is to roll the fillets up and skewer them with a bamboo skewer and grill over the fire. I usually give them a good dusting of seasonings before I roll them up.
Last year I gave the grilled rolls a light drizzle of honey, soy sauce, ghee, garlic and ginger mixture a few minutes before removing them from the fire. They were very tasty.
Over the last couple of years we've tried to find alternatives to frying.
A couple of our favorites are "baking" fillets unwrapped on heavy foil right in the fire with a little butter, onion and lemon. Completely wrapping them will more or less steam them. (that's good, too, but doesn't give them any "smokey" flavor)
The second way, and this is a little unorthodox, is to roll the fillets up and skewer them with a bamboo skewer and grill over the fire. I usually give them a good dusting of seasonings before I roll them up.
Last year I gave the grilled rolls a light drizzle of honey, soy sauce, ghee, garlic and ginger mixture a few minutes before removing them from the fire. They were very tasty.
You're just in time for the best part of the day ... the part where you and me become we! - Winnie the Pooh
05/17/2016 01:45PM
Besides frying fish in oil with onion and garlic salt, I sometimes like to hot smoke a walleye. You can do it with a stick propped over the fire or with a tripod of sticks and hanging the gutted fish on a string (or stringer). You leave it there in the smoke for about an hour or two until the meat is flaky. Then you just peel back the skin and enjoy the hot smoky fish.
I know this is not true smoking since I am not dehydrating it, I am slow cooking it in the hot smoke. You can also rub salt/seasoning into the fish before cooking for flavor.
I know this is not true smoking since I am not dehydrating it, I am slow cooking it in the hot smoke. You can also rub salt/seasoning into the fish before cooking for flavor.
05/18/2016 11:26AM
quote A1t2o: "Besides frying fish in oil with onion and garlic salt, I sometimes like to hot smoke a walleye. You can do it with a stick propped over the fire or with a tripod of sticks and hanging the gutted fish on a string (or stringer). You leave it there in the smoke for about an hour or two until the meat is flaky. Then you just peel back the skin and enjoy the hot smoky fish.
I know this is not true smoking since I am not dehydrating it, I am slow cooking it in the hot smoke. You can also rub salt/seasoning into the fish before cooking for flavor."
Oh boy I will have to give this a try!
02/14/2017 06:31PM
Favorite way depends on what kind of fish for me. Lake trout would be a little butter, homemade maple syrup, salt, and pepper wrapped in tin foil. Walleye and pike battered with Andy's red and fried in Parkay squeeze butter. Bass is boiled in chunks and added to Bear Creek clam chowder soup, mmmmm.
02/15/2017 01:09PM
We do the Crisco butter flavored sticks. 1/2 stick will fry a lot of fish.
Have to do walleye 2 or 3 times this way per trip. Another favorite is bacon wrapped LT. For cold days Bear Creek wild rice soup with added extra wild rice, dehydrated carrots&celery and old bay to taste. Put raw fish chunks in late enough to cook them but not so early as they are broken up during cooking.
Have to do walleye 2 or 3 times this way per trip. Another favorite is bacon wrapped LT. For cold days Bear Creek wild rice soup with added extra wild rice, dehydrated carrots&celery and old bay to taste. Put raw fish chunks in late enough to cook them but not so early as they are broken up during cooking.
02/15/2017 01:57PM
quote AmarilloJim:For cold days Bear Creek wild rice soup with added extra wild rice, dehydrated carrots&celery and old bay to taste. Put raw fish chunks in late enough to cook them but not so early as they are broken up during cooking."
That sounds awesome. I'll try this on my next trip.
02/15/2017 05:09PM
Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?
On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. I will usually fry fish 3 times, once being for fish tacos. After that, it goes into just about everything. Spaghetti, chili, bear mountain cheesy potato soup, alfredo noodles, rice dishes, you name it! Normally I just throw chunks into whatever I'm cooking for the last 5 minutes. Also love tin foil baked lake trout.
On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. I will usually fry fish 3 times, once being for fish tacos. After that, it goes into just about everything. Spaghetti, chili, bear mountain cheesy potato soup, alfredo noodles, rice dishes, you name it! Normally I just throw chunks into whatever I'm cooking for the last 5 minutes. Also love tin foil baked lake trout.
"Hold on, I think I can get in without getting my feet wet."....SPLASH...
02/16/2017 09:38AM
quote Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?
On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. I will usually fry fish 3 times, once being for fish tacos. After that, it goes into just about everything. Spaghetti, chili, bear mountain cheesy potato soup, alfredo noodles, rice dishes, you name it! Normally I just throw chunks into whatever I'm cooking for the last 5 minutes. Also love tin foil baked lake trout. "
You must eat like kings... but how heavy is that food pack?? Is that cast iron?
02/17/2017 11:40PM
quote GoSpursGo: "quote Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?
On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. I will usually fry fish 3 times, once being for fish tacos. After that, it goes into just about everything. Spaghetti, chili, bear mountain cheesy potato soup, alfredo noodles, rice dishes, you name it! Normally I just throw chunks into whatever I'm cooking for the last 5 minutes. Also love tin foil baked lake trout. "
You must eat like kings... but how heavy is that food pack?? Is that cast iron?"
We do eat well. That little beauty is a 7 1/2" pan that weighs 2# 13 oz. An aluminum pan is OK over a gas stove, but nothing beats a cast iron pan on the fire. You should see the bannock and hash browns that this thing turns out! It is heavy, but every trip we do a gear review, and the cast iron makes the cut without question. Cooking over a fire saves more than it's with weight with fuel weight. With groups of greater than 3, I bring a 10' 1/2" pan that weighs in at a shade over 6#. That is a lot of weight, but you can't put a price on the performance of cast iron. I just paid $98 for a new SS firegrate. It will allow me to cook some whoopass meals in the Q or on Canadian Crown Land that I couldn't normally do. Like anything else it is a compromise. At the end of the day, that is the price of one nice meal out with my wife in exchange for hundreds of nice meals in the woods.
"Hold on, I think I can get in without getting my feet wet."....SPLASH...
02/25/2017 08:15PM
Frying has been my favorite for panfish, pike and walleye. Olive oil not very much. When I'm done, there is very little to dispose of !
Salmon, with Mayonaise, and wrapped in tinfoil is AWESOME. Can't see why it wouldn't work for other fish !
Jim
Salmon, with Mayonaise, and wrapped in tinfoil is AWESOME. Can't see why it wouldn't work for other fish !
Jim
Keep your paddle wet and your seat dry!
05/20/2017 05:34PM
We used to fry fish, but after wasting tons of gas, and carrying lots of oil we decided to bake it over the grate one night after running out of oil. We try to get cedar, put tin foil on the grate, and cook it over the fire. We haven't carried oil other than a dropper to keep the fish from sticking to the foil. We bring slap your momma and or paprika for seasoning. I have used the reflector oven with a tinfoil pan also. Try it, you won't regret it!
05/22/2017 03:22PM
Any way other than the way we did it last year. We (well, I) forgot the shore lunch so we figured hey, this pancake mix we have is more or less the same thing, right?
Wrong.
Turns out that pancake mix is just breading with no salt or seasoning and the end result is what can adequately be described as fish pancakes.
On a serious note I'm a big fan of just a sprinkle of shore lunch on both side fried in an adequate amount of oil. That stuff really is well engineered to be tasty. Alternately some lemon and dill and/or lemon pepper seasoning and cooked on the grate (with some foil under it) is delightful as well, but really they're (almost) all good ways of cooking it if it's fresh BWCA fish!
Wrong.
Turns out that pancake mix is just breading with no salt or seasoning and the end result is what can adequately be described as fish pancakes.
On a serious note I'm a big fan of just a sprinkle of shore lunch on both side fried in an adequate amount of oil. That stuff really is well engineered to be tasty. Alternately some lemon and dill and/or lemon pepper seasoning and cooked on the grate (with some foil under it) is delightful as well, but really they're (almost) all good ways of cooking it if it's fresh BWCA fish!
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. John Muir
06/17/2017 08:08AM
Real easy and restaurant quality... Whatever fillet you have, dredge in pre-made flour/cornmeal/blackened seasoning mix (to taste), heat 2 tbsp olive oil and same of butter in your frying pan to bubbling and cook fish halfway and flip once until done (lightly browned). Put fish on serving plates and quickly put 1 tbsp lemon or lime juice (squeeze bottle fine) into remaining HOT oil mixture. It will quickly bubble and you stir together and put small spoonful on each piece of fish on the plate...
It is an easy cleanup as there is no oil left in frying pan and is delicious and fast.
It is an easy cleanup as there is no oil left in frying pan and is delicious and fast.
If we aren't actively working to protect our planet, we are acquiescing to those who run their life as if their personal WANTS are the only things that matter. John
04/26/2018 10:13AM
Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?
On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. "
OK Wables.....You definitely hit my sweet spot. I always bring 3# plus of bacon for our trips. Usually fry bacon first as appetizer and fry fish in the grease. First day this year bacon wrapped eyes on the menu. Thanks for the tip
04/26/2018 10:18AM
AmarilloJim: "The pre-cooked stuff lasts for weeks. I prefer regular bacon as I can mold it better and there is more grease for frying. I trip in the shoulder seasons and regular bacon lasts all week for me."
Even in summer months I can have it for 3-5 days. Since it is cured, as long as you keep it out of direct sun it won't go bad to fast. I freeze all the bacon in 1/2 to 1# bundles in plastic bag. I then wrap with 2 layers of tin foil around each bag. I bring a small collapsible cooler bag(six pack style or smaller) an put them in it as well as cheese products and stuff that in the bottom or middle of food pack which keeps it cooler. This way I only have out in the heat what I am cooking. In the many years of doing this I have never gotten sick. Longest trip 7 days and ate bacon last morning. (It was in early June and mild temps so that helped). Been out in hot July and ate it 4 mornings.
04/26/2018 03:07PM
fishinfool71: "Wables: "Bacon wrapped walleye. Need I say more?
On a 9 day trip, we will eat 8-10 meals of fish. Day 2 and 3 is bacon wrapped eyes. "
OK Wables.....You definitely hit my sweet spot. I always bring 3# plus of bacon for our trips. Usually fry bacon first as appetizer and fry fish in the grease. First day this year bacon wrapped eyes on the menu. Thanks for the tip"
Only thing better is bacon wrapped LT
08/04/2021 10:06AM
fishinfool71: "AmarilloJim: "The pre-cooked stuff lasts for weeks. I prefer regular bacon as I can mold it better and there is more grease for frying. I trip in the shoulder seasons and regular bacon lasts all week for me."
Even in summer months I can have it for 3-5 days. Since it is cured, as long as you keep it out of direct sun it won't go bad to fast. I freeze all the bacon in 1/2 to 1# bundles in plastic bag. I then wrap with 2 layers of tin foil around each bag. I bring a small collapsible cooler bag(six pack style or smaller) an put them in it as well as cheese products and stuff that in the bottom or middle of food pack which keeps it cooler. This way I only have out in the heat what I am cooking. In the many years of doing this I have never gotten sick. Longest trip 7 days and ate bacon last morning. (It was in early June and mild temps so that helped). Been out in hot July and ate it 4 mornings. "
This is golden. I've failed (my fault, nobody else) at fishing in the BWCA so far but am trying again this year and really want to be prepped for being able to fry up some fish for my buddies if any are caught. I really don't want to transport oil in my pack just because of the obvious reasons, but this frozen bacon route seems like a solid plan :)
08/05/2021 08:15AM
backpackingZombie: "fishinfool71: "AmarilloJim: "The pre-cooked stuff lasts for weeks. I prefer regular bacon as I can mold it better and there is more grease for frying. I trip in the shoulder seasons and regular bacon lasts all week for me."
Even in summer months I can have it for 3-5 days. Since it is cured, as long as you keep it out of direct sun it won't go bad to fast. I freeze all the bacon in 1/2 to 1# bundles in plastic bag. I then wrap with 2 layers of tin foil around each bag. I bring a small collapsible cooler bag(six pack style or smaller) an put them in it as well as cheese products and stuff that in the bottom or middle of food pack which keeps it cooler. This way I only have out in the heat what I am cooking. In the many years of doing this I have never gotten sick. Longest trip 7 days and ate bacon last morning. (It was in early June and mild temps so that helped). Been out in hot July and ate it 4 mornings. "
This is golden. I've failed (my fault, nobody else) at fishing in the BWCA so far but am trying again this year and really want to be prepped for being able to fry up some fish for my buddies if any are caught. I really don't want to transport oil in my pack just because of the obvious reasons, but this frozen bacon route seems like a solid plan :)
"
Try trolling about 30' off shore and you should catch all the NP you need.
Just learn the 5 fillet technique before you go.
08/05/2021 12:00PM
Take a slip bobber and a crawler or leaches fishing on about 10 ft of water right off your campsite and be patient. You’ll eventually can catch a smallmouth bass which in the bdub is good to eat.
You're going to HELL and you're going to drag me with ya!! -Gunsmoke
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