Shore Lunch Fried Walleye
Cornflake-crusted fillets in a skillet of hot fat, an hour after the fish came out of the lake.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 40 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 22 min
- water
- 60 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Day one only
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Walleye fillets | 4-6 | perch, crappie, or pike work the same way |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | |
| Powdered whole egg | 3 tbsp | plus 1/4 cup cold water to reconstitute |
| Cornflake crumbs | 1 1/2 cups | cracker meal is the older version |
| Seasoning salt | 1 tsp | |
| Lemon pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Lard or shortening | 1 lb | enough to come up the sides of the fillets |
| Hot sauce | 2 tbsp | optional, for coating the fillets before breading |
Method
- Build the fire down to coals or get the liquid-fuel stove running steady. Set a cast iron skillet over it and melt the lard until it shimmers and a pinch of crumbs sizzles on contact. That is roughly 350F.
- Rinse the fillets in lake water and run a thumb down each one for stray bones. Pat them until they are damp, not dripping. Wet fish sheds its breading.
- Stir the egg powder into the cold water in a cup and let it sit two minutes. Put the flour in one bag, the crumbs and all the seasoning in another.
- Dredge a fillet in flour, dip it in the egg, then shake it in the crumb bag until it is coated all over.
- Lay two or three fillets in the fat. Do not fill the pan. Cook about three minutes a side until the crust is set and the meat flakes.
- Pull them onto a plate and let the fat come back up to heat before the next batch.
This is fish-camp cooking, so the fish is not something you carry. Everything else is: breading, seasoning, and a pound of fat that stays solid in a tub at any temperature you will meet on the water. The lard matters more than the recipe. It holds heat through a batch of cold fillets in a way a thin puddle of oil does not, and cast iron over coals is a slow instrument to correct once the temperature drops.
The home swap is the egg. Buttermilk and fresh eggs are what a lodge kitchen uses; powdered whole egg with cold water does the same job of gluing crumbs to fish and rides in a pack for a week. Flour first, then egg, then crumbs, in that order. Skip the flour and the coating slides off in the pan.
Packing
Flour goes in one bag, crumbs and seasoning in another, mixed at home. Lard rides in a screw-top tub. Pack a slotted spoon and a bag for the used fat so none of it goes in the water.
Variations
- Skip the flour and egg. Coat the fillets in hot sauce straight from the bottle, then shake them in seasoned panko.
- Cook potatoes in the same fat first, then the fish. The potatoes season the oil.
- Cornmeal in place of half the crumbs gives a coarser crust that holds up better in wind.
https://visitsunsetcountry.com/shore-lunch-recipes