BARBECUED SALMON HAIDA

Claude and Vivian Davidson —
Haida

Slit the underside of the fish from head to tail.
Clean out the insides and cut off the head.

Remove the backbone by cutting a quarter of an inch from
it on both sides. Do not cut through the skin. This will free
the backbone from the smaller side benes so it can be pulled
free.

Open the fish flat, flesh side up, and place it on a table
so that the tail is nearest to you.

Find the centre of the salmon and make two incn-long
slits one about an inch under the other.

Make another two slits above these two slits at the top of
the fish about an inch from the edge.

Sharpen both ends of a cedar stick which is five-eights of
an inch in diameter and about three feet long.

Beginning at the tail end of the fish, slide the stick along
the length of the fish between the skin and the meat. When
the stick comes to the two slits in the centre of the fish
bring it out through the first slit and back down through
the second slit so that about an inch of the stick shows at
the surface. This is repeated at the top set of slits.

Smaller sticks, with a diameter of about one-half inch, are

sharpened and inserted across the salmon to keep it flat.

Place one stick about an inch from the head end of the fish
and the other half-way from the head and tail ends. Again
insert the sticks between the meat and the skin keeping the
smaller sticks under the centre stick. (Placing the smaller
sticks under the centre stick helps to support the fish when
the skin side is toward the fire.

Put the stick with the salmon on it in the ground at an angle
toward the fire so that the fish rests about a foot from the
flames. On windy days the fish should be positioned so that
the wind will blow the ashes away from the fish.

iz.

Cook the salmon about one hour with the meat side to-
ward the fire. When the skin feels warm to the touch, turn
the fish and cook with the skin side toward the fire for
half an hour.

Serve hot with melted butter or culachon grease.

Before the people of Bella Bella had nets, Willie Giadstone
recalled, they trapped fish. A circle of rocks about four feet
high was constructed at low tide. High tide brought the fish
into the traps Icaving them stranded at the next low tide. ~