Fish Butterly to Butterfly fish.

[A.C]

Hello All
I am highly interested in learning how to butterfly fish. I have tried it several times to only find out that it falls apart at the spine. I once stuffed mine over an open flame unfortunately as i had no grill (my leaky bucket let me down) i had to use green samplings which i lashed together to form a square base about 3 foot high then placed the open butterflied fish on top stuffed with some thyyme rosemary, garlic, butter, and spices as well as some wild onions i gathered. Only one problem is that the fish does seem to fall apart at the spine. HOw should i prevent this from happenening in the future?
thanks so much.
A. C

 

[alco141]

a.c,

i would suspect that you may be overcooking the fish, when fish is well done it flakes, and that will cause the meat to separate from the bones and skin. what is the solution, make a grill out of small diam. straight branches,or carry some heavy aluminum foil and just cook the fish in the foil (my favorite, you can add potato and onion and some butter or bacon, wrap up tight , put in the foil, cook about 7-10 minutes on a side), you have a whole meal. i havent tried the grill method for quite a while, but as i recall it took me some time to fashion the grill from green sticks. a little wire helps.

hope this helps,
alex