A fishy tale

John Nesfield's Retinue recipe for Salmon in Salt Dough:


First catch your salmon, clean and gut it!

Off with his head! (you can leave it on, but ours wouldn't fit on the fire with his head on).

Stuff with breadcrumbs, a good handful of fennel leaves, parsley & chives. Add a few slices of lemon if available. Add plenty of black pepper. Mix with as much white wine as it takes to bind the stuffing together.


Find a volunteer to drink the leftover wine.









Make a dough with flour, salt and water. 2 parts flour to 1 part salt, enough water to bind.

Roll out the dough and encase the salmon. Seal the joins carefully with water.

Bake over the fire - we think it should have gone directly into the ashes to cook, but as our firewood was big and difficult to burn, (and it kept raining) we put the salmon on the rack over the fire.



Once the dough has hardened, turn over to cook the other side.


This took at least 2 people with fire proof fingers.

(Our salmon took about 2 1/2 hours to cook through, obviously this would depend on the size of the salmon, thickness of the dough and the heat of the fire).

When cooked, the salt dough is removed - DON'T EAT IT. Remove the backbone and enjoy the flesh.

As you can see, the dough gets very burnt, but the salmon inside stays lovely and moist, and all the flavours are sealed in. Sadly it was all eaten before we could get a photo!


Mmmmm.............Highly recommended.