Anybody know how to cook fish with minimal supplies? Suppose for the sake of this question that you have a way to catch and skin the fish, and access to some sort of oil, but nothing to use as a pan except for flat rocks.
Impale the fish on a forked stick. Hold it over a fire, or support the stick with rocks.
Wrap the fish in a big leaf and tie it shut with some vine or something. Cook it in the fire.
Dig a hole in the sand. Put your flat stones in the pit and start a hot fire on them. When they’re heated through, brush the embers and ash off of them and cover them with wet seaweed. Put the fish, clams, mussels, or what-have-you and cover with seaweed. Cover with sand and let it cook for a couple/few hours.
Sashimi.
You answered your own question. When we go fishing and camping, one of the first things I do is find a flat rock [ not I repeat NOT a rock from the river] and clean it off. That night I take the days haul, cut head off, cut tail off, filet down center and cook on the meat side up on the flat rock. Then I take the tail part pick it up and dump the meat on who ever’s plate is closest. Easy as pie.
Or I have taken a small “Y” shaped stick and cooked the filet on that. A filet looks like a Y sort of and I hook the ends of the Y into the corresponding end of the stick Y and cook carefully. This method is not as precise because the meat has a tendency to fall off when it’s done.
Forget the oil. Just flavor with salt and pepper. Or Montreal… mmmmmm
When I was in the Peace Corps the locals on the island I was on didn’t even use flat rocks. We would toss the catch in the fire on the coals and then after about seven or eight minutes turn it over. Then five minutes later we would take them out and eat them with our fingers after letting them cool a bit. Just before we ate them we would clean the guts out by slicing the gullet and taking the guts out with our fingers.
We didn’t eat the head or the fins (or the bones of course).
Vyvyan: Hey! Some of these bricks explode!
I just take a simple folding grill. Gut them, sprinkle with lemon pepper and eat.
I remember in The Spirit Of St. Louis Jimmy Stewart met the president (?) of Ryan Aircraft, who had caught some sand dabs and was cooking them on a piece of aluminum sheet. So if you’re a castaway whose plane has crashed, perhaps you could salvage some skin for a pan.