Broiled Fish

Ingredients

• large fish
• fat bacon
• sprinkle with salt
• spread with butter

Method

1. 1

   Rub broiling iron with bacon.

2. 2

   Split fish down the back, lay on broiler with bacon strips.

3. 3

   Broil over moderate coals, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and spread with butter until melted.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Camp cookery (Kephart) (1910) by Kephart, Horace, page 40. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

large fish should be cut into pieces, and ribs cut loose from backbone, so as to lie flat in pan. Rub the pieces in corn meal, or powdered crumbs, thinly and evenly (that browns them). Fry in plenty of very hot grease 82 FISH AND SHELLFISH. 83 to a golden brown, sprinkling lightly with pepper and salt just as the color turns. If the fish is not naturally full-flavored, a few drops of lemon juice will improve it. Olive oil is best to fry fish in; the next choice is clear drippings or butter. If the fish has not been wiped dry it will absorb too much grease. If the frying fat is not very hot when fish are put in they will be soggy with it. Fish, Broiled. — (See also page 52.) If a broil- ing iron is used, first rub it with fat bacon to prevent fish from sticking to it. In broiling large fish, remove the head, split down the back instead of the belly, and lay on the broiler with strips of bacon or pork laid across. Broil over a rather moderate bed of coals so that the inside will cook done. Small fish are best broiled quickly over ardent coals. They need not have heads removed. When done, sprinkle with salt and pepper, spread with butter (unless you have used bacon), and hold again over fire until butter melts. Fish, Skewered. — Small fish may be skewered on a thin, straight, greenwood stick, sharpened at the end, with a thin slice of bacon or pork between every two fish, the stick being constantly turned over the coals like a spit, so that juices may not be lost. Another way is to cut some green hardwood sticks, about three feet long, forked at one end, and sharpen the tines. Lay a thin slice of pork inside each fish lengthwise, drive tines through fish and pork, letting them through be- tween ribs near backbone and on opposite sides of the latter — then the fish won't drop off as soon as it begins to soften and curl from the heat. Place a log lengthwise of edge of coals, lay broil- 84 CAMP COOKERY. ing sticks on this support, slanting upward over the fire, and lay a small log over their butts. Large fish should be planked. Fish Roasted in a Reflector. — This process is simpler than baking, and superior in resulting flavor, since the fish is basted in its own juices, and is delicately browned by the direct action of the fire. The surface of the fish is lightly mois- tened with olive oil (first choice) or butter; lack- ing these, use drippings, or bacon grease, or lard. Then place the fish in the pan and add two or three morsels of grease around it. Roast in front of a good fire, just as yoii would bake biscuit. Be careful not to overroast and dry the fish by evapor- ating the gravy. There is no better way to cook a large fish, unless it be planked. Fish, Planlced. — More expeditious than baking, and better flavored. Split and smooth a slab of sweet hardwood two or three inches thick, two feet long, and somewhat wider than the opened fish. Prop it in front of a bed of coals till it is sizzling hot. Split the fish down the back its entire length, but do not cut through the belly skin. Clean and wipe it quite dry. When plank is hot, spread fish out like an opened book, tack it, skin side down, to the plank and prop before fire. Baste continu- ously with a bit of pork on a switch held above it. Reverse ends of plank from time to time. If the flesh is flaky when pierced with a fork, it is done. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the fish, moisten with drippings, and serve on the hot plank. No better dish ever was set before an epicure. Plenty of butter improves it at table. Fish, Stujfed and Baked. — Clean, remove fins, but leave on head and tail. Prepare a stuffing as follows: put a cupful of dry bread-crumbs in a FISH AND SHELLFISH. 85 frying-pan over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of drippings, or the equivalent of butter, and stir them until they begin to brown. Then add enough boiling water to moisten them. Season this stuf- fing rather highly with salt, pepper, and either celery seed, or sage, or a teaspoonful of highly chopped onion. Stuff the fish with this and sew up the opening, or wind string several times around the fish. Lay several strips of salt pork or bacon in the pan, and several over the top of the fish. Sprinkle over all a little water, pepper, salt, and bread crumbs (or dredge with flour). Bake in a hot oven, basting frequently. When flakes of fish begin to separate, it will be done. This is best for coarse fish. Fish Baked in Clay. — "Take a fresh-caught fish and rub it in soft clay from the river bank, against the scales and gills. When the clay is set a little, roll the whole fish in a blanket of clay, till the body is completely covered. Dry in the heat of the fire for fifteen minutes; bury in the hot coals and ashes till the clay is hard. Rake the brick out of the fire and crack it open with the hatchet. The fish will split in two pieces; the spine can easily be taken out; the 'inwards' are shrunk to a little ball, which can be flipped off; and the scales are stuck on the clay. Dust on a little salt, and you have a meal fit for — a hungry hunter." {Frank Bates.) Fish, Steamed. — Smear some tissue Manila paper with butter. Clean the fish, leaving head and fins on. Season with salt and Cayenne pep- per. Roll each fish separately in a piece of the buttered paper. Place the fish in a pile and en- velop them in a large sheet of paper. Then wrap the bundle in a newspaper, and dip this in water 86 CAMP COOKERY. for five minuteSj, or long enough to saturate the newspaper. Scrape a hole in the middle of a bed of coals^ and bury the package in the embers. Leave it there ten to twenty minutes, depending upon size. The newspaper will scorch, but the in- ner wrappers will not. The result is a dish fit for Olympus. (JJp De Graff.) Small fish can be steamed in wet basswood leaves, or other large leaves, without buttering. For another method of steaming, see page 60. Fish, Boiled. — None but fish of good size should be boiled. If the fish is started in cold water and not allowed to boil hard, it will be less likely to fall apart, but the flavor will not be so good. It is better to wrap the fish in a clean cloth and drop it into boiling water well salted. A tablespoonful of vinegar, or the juice of a lemon, improves the dish. Leave the head on, but remove the fins. Boil very gently until the flesh will easily part from the bones. Time depends on species; from eight to ten minutes per pound for thick fish, and five minutes for small ones. Boiled fish

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.