THE FINE ART OF PIKE COOKING 



ing now and then so that it will properly harden, and 

 the fish is ready for the trench. Rake out part of the 

 coals and lay the pike in its warm bed. Cover with 

 coals and ashes. A large pike will bake in from two 

 to three hours. The more clay added to the body the 

 longer it will take to cook and the more certain the 

 results. A good fire should be maintained on top of 

 the trench. When everything is ready, the hungry 

 fisherman waiting to be served, dig out the brick, 

 crack open with the camp ax, remove the backbone 

 and "innards," the latter shrunken to a little ball, 

 sprinkle with salt and pepper, and eat. The uninr- 

 tiated will be surprised and delighted with the tooth- 

 someness of the dish. As I said of planking pike, so 

 I say of this method of cooking: All depends upon the 

 cook's thoroughness and attention to details. 



Perhaps some of my readers will think I have gone 

 into this matter of cooking with too much thorough- 

 ness, while others may complain that I have not 

 been thorough enough. The angler who cares for 

 nothing but catching fish will have found this chapter 

 more than tedious, should he have read so far, while 

 the angler-cook — and he is constantly on the increase — 

 will regard this as the most worth-while chapter in 

 the whole work. When "Trout Lore" first appeared, 

 more people wrote me about a certain method of 

 cooking trout therein described than regarding any 

 other topic, unless perhaps it was fly-tying. The fact 

 of the matter is, the dyed-in-the-wool angler is an 

 embryonic cook, interested in all toothsome ways of 

 serving his captures. To delegate the cooking of fish 

 in the open to the guide, be he ever so expert, is not 

 the most enjoyable way. He who would sap the last 



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