Grilling salmon old style over open fire

[Okanagan]

My wife's brothers and their wives all came over and they wanted to cook salmon the way their Dad did, splayed out on sticks over an open fire.  We improvised and cooked over our smallish fire pot, and it turned out superb. 

Finished product.



We split a plum tree stick because it was handier than going after a traditional alder pole.



We did use small alder sticks to thread through the fish to keep it open and in place.  We cooked two small jack salmon but I only pictured one.  Our bigger fish weighed 5 lbs., a nice cooking size.  I have done this with 2-6 lb. trout beside mountain backpack lakes.





The first time I saw this done was with my late father-in-law and about a 15 lb salmon he cooked for the family on a beach.  He propped the fish up so far from the fire I thought, “That will NEVER cook.”  But he was right and I was wrong.  Done right, it is slow and stays moist, and my mouth starts to water about the time the fish begins to drip fat.  In the photo above, the fish is too close to the fire, but I get impatient!  In our cooking yesterday, we moved the fire onto a grassy patch to keep fish oil drips from our regular patio.

[nastygunz]

Yummmmmmmm!

[FinsnFur]

I would expect that to fall off the stick as it began to dry and cook
Thats kinda cool