Fish soup in a cauldron over a campfire

Name: Fish soup in a cauldron over a campfire
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 5 l (6–8 servings)
Ingredients: Fish — 1.4 kg Water — 3 l Potatoes — 3 pcs. Carrot — 1 pc. Onion — 1 pc. Tomato — 1 pc. (optional) Parsley — 1 bunch Allspice peppercorns — 10 pcs. Bay leaf — 2 pcs. Sea salt — to taste

Published: 04.09.2026

Updated: 04.09.2026

🤤 Здорові рецепти щодня

Cooking time 55 minutes Portions 5 l (6–8 servings)

Fish soup over a campfire differs from the home version not in the recipe but in the order of things. At home you can let it simmer on and on, taste it, top it up with water; over a fire there is none of that — the heat is not adjusted by turning a knob, and everything is decided by the order in which things go in. The vegetables go first, because they need twenty minutes, the fish last, because ten are enough for it.

The second difference comes from the cauldron itself: its thick walls hold an even heat, and the water inside does not boil violently but "breathes". That is exactly why fish soup from a cauldron comes out clear even without straining, while the same fish in a thin pot gives a cloudy broth.

The fish here is any fish from the catch — perch, zander, carp, bream. A classic fish soup is made from a mixed catch: the small fry give the body of the broth, the large fish give the pieces on the plate. If only heads and backbones went into the cauldron, that is already a different dish, closer to carp head fish soup.

Clear pike fish soup with an egg-white raft aims at clarity rather than speed, and carp head fish soup is built on heads alone for the richest broth.

Caloric content: 95kcal

Ingredients

Fish — 1.4 kg
Water — 3 l
Potatoes — 3 pcs.
Carrot — 1 pc.
Onion — 1 pc.
Tomato — 1 pc. (optional)
Parsley — 1 bunch
Allspice peppercorns — 10 pcs.
Bay leaf — 2 pcs.
Sea salt — to taste

Light the fire and clean the fish

Light the fire and set up the cauldron. Gut the fish, take out the gills, cut it into pieces and rinse it well. Peel the potatoes and the carrot and cut them coarsely, cut the onion into quarters.

Put in the vegetables

Bring three litres of water to the boil in the cauldron. Lower in the carrot, the potatoes and the rinsed parsley and cook until the vegetables are soft. Salt it.

Add the spices

Throw in the allspice peppercorns and put in the bay leaf. The spices go in before the fish, not after it: the broth has to take up the aroma in advance.

Lower in the fish

Lower the fish and the coarsely cut tomato into the boiling liquid. After that the cauldron is not stirred.

Cook until done

Cook until the flesh begins to come away from the bones. The fish cooks quickly — watch that it does not overcook.

Take the cauldron off and serve

Carefully take the cauldron off the fire. Take the fish out and, if you like, separate the flesh from the bones. Ladle the fish soup into bowls and put fish into each one.

Notes

The gills have to be taken out. They are the only part that gives bitterness, and it does not boil away — over a campfire the mistake can no longer be put right by adding water.
Do not stir with a ladle. The fish in the cauldron is not touched at all after it goes in: boiled fish holds to the bone exactly as long as nothing touches it. If need be, the cauldron is shaken by its handle.
It is done when the flesh begins to come away from the bone. Do not cook it any longer than that: over the next five minutes the fish will fall apart into fibres, and instead of a fish soup with pieces in it you get a cloudy soup with nothing in it.
The tomato is optional, and it is not there for the taste. The acid clears the broth and takes away a little of the silty aftertaste of pond fish. With river fish it can be left out.
The vegetables are cut coarsely. Finely cut ones boil down to mush over an open fire before the second batch even comes to the boil.
The cauldron comes off the fire straight away. Thick walls give off their heat for a long time, and fish soup left on the coals goes on cooking for another ten minutes after it seems done.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.