Campfire Fish Recipe

This is an easy, delicious way to cook smelt or other small fish. Just wrap fish in foil and grill—or, cook over an open fire. The fish will be cooked in an herbal steam and emerge fragrant and perfectly moist!

One simple method is to place your fillets in a foil pouch. Or, if you wish to avoid foil, wrap your fish in leaves before cooking. Leaves from sycamore, walnut, oak, chestnut, maple, or even cherry trees will work. (Or, you could buy banana leaves.) You will also need fiber string or cotton kitchen twine string for tying up the leaf packets.

Note: With smelt, the backbone is generally kept intact; the bones become crisp and brittle and are eaten.  You can cook other fish as well. Because you are cooking in foil, most fish will work fine, from heartier fillets like salmon to light fish like tilapia.

Check out our Camp-Fire Dutch Oven Cooking Recipes.