Whiskey Brown Sugar Glazed Trout on the Grate
A caught-or-bought trout fillet, a four-ingredient glaze, and a plank over the fire.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 8 oz
- cal / oz
- 54
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 3, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Steelhead, trout, or salmon fillet | 1.5 lb | skin on, kept cold until it hits the fire |
|---|---|---|
| Brown sugar | 1/3 cup | packed |
| Whiskey | 3 tbsp | Crown Royal in the original; any decent rye works |
| Honey | 2 tbsp | |
| Butter | 3 tbsp | |
| Soy sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Lemon | 1 | juiced |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | a pinch | |
| Salt | to taste | |
| Cedar grilling plank | 1 | soaked an hour at home, or use a doubled foil sheet |
Method
- Melt the butter in a small pan at the edge of the fire. Add brown sugar, honey, whiskey, soy sauce, lemon juice, ginger, pepper, and the flakes.
- Let it bubble gently five to eight minutes, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon. Pull it off the heat before it goes to candy.
- Oil the plank lightly and lay the fillet on it skin side down. Salt and pepper the top.
- Set the plank on the grate over medium coals and close the lid or tent it with foil. Fifteen minutes.
- Brush glaze over the fish and keep brushing every five minutes until it flakes at the thickest point, another five to ten.
- Pour whatever glaze is left over the fillet and let it sit two minutes before serving.
This is a cooler recipe, not a pack recipe. Fresh fish and butter both need ice, so it belongs at a car camp or a basecamp where the cooler stays shut.
The glaze is a reduction: butter and sugar for body, soy sauce and lemon for the salt and acid that keep it from reading as dessert. Reduce it before the fish goes on. Brushed thin over a fillet that is already mostly cooked, it sets into a lacquer instead of running off into the coals. Brushing it on cold fish at minute zero just burns the sugar.
A soaked cedar plank keeps the fillet off the bars so it lifts in one piece. Foil does the same job with less ceremony.
Packing
Mix the sugar, ginger, pepper, and flakes in a small jar at home. Whiskey, honey, soy sauce, and lemon juice go in one leakproof bottle. Butter and fish live in the cooler.
Variations
- No plank: build a doubled foil boat with the edges turned up and cook the fillet in that. Same times, and the glaze stays put.
- Bourbon in place of the rye pushes it sweeter. Skip the honey if you do.
- Cook the glaze down at home and carry it in a squeeze bottle. Cuts camp time in half.
https://realtree.com/recipes/timber-2-table/brown-sugar-whiskey-glazed-steelhead