Clay Baking Fish (Tutorial)

I always get a smile from looking at some of the latest trendy things like mud bathes and clay baked food that cost consumers top dollar when we can simply dig the stuff up and do it ourselves. Restaurants charge premium prices to serve you clay baked food, accompanied with its own hip mallet to crack it open when it's served to you.

Clay baking is a great way to cook things in the field without throwing stuff directly in the coals and having that awesome ashy taste we all love. Some birch bark was laid on the ground to act as a plate so we could slide the fish into the fire later. a layer of clay is placed on the birch bark plate, followed by nontoxic grasses to protect the fish from sticking to the clay. Take the gutted fish or whatever you want to cook, season it if available, and lay it on these grasses.



Take more nontoxic grasses and place it on the top of the fish and then finish covering it in mud and clay.


Dragging the bark plate into the coals of a fire, cover it with coals and sustain a fire on top of it. This method helps hold in moisture and flavor without getting ash all over it or burning it up in the coals. A fish like this took about an hour and 1/2 to fully cook. Smaller things will take a bit less time.

(sorry I don't have a picture of it actually cooking, I don't really know why I don't.)