350* is the magic number. Buy a cast iron dutch oven and cooking outside. Cast iron heats more evenly and is more forgiving than cheap thin pots. Thermometer is a good idea. Dont buy anything with plastic or wood on it. Breading crushed saltines. Dredge in flour, then dunk in a an egg milk mixture (2 cups milk/1 egg) and press into crackers. Drain well before crackers or they will get wet to fast. The peanut oil question...440* is the smoking point. Soybean or corn oil work well. Don't forget the homeade tartar sauce.

You can see the temps have a range and the whole range will get results. Just need to fry until the fish is as done and as crunchy as you prefer. But, Zataraines is the best mix. It has corn FLOUR not meal as the main ingredient. Do like mentioned before, (important) pat the filets dry with paper towel, shake in Zataraine mix, shake filet in bag of mix to shake all loose mix off the filet and slide into oil. You may want to salt the filets in addition to the meal mix before frying. Even if you use other mixes, pat the fish dry before putting in the meal mix.

Looks like you got enough ideas above to get you going but I want to mention one other thing.

The cooking time is going to depend on the size of your fillets. You have to cook fillets from a 3 pound crappie longer then for a 3/4 pound crappie. I cooked some this afternoon that were from 2 1/2 - 3 pounders and let them go 9 minutes in 400 degree peanut oil. I used Louisiana Fish Fry New Orleans Style coating (yellow bag) and they were perfect.

You can always cut the fillets in 2 if you have a lot of different size fish.

If you are fixing them for children I would also recommend a batter instead of the mixes. I know my kids didn't like all of the spice when they were smaller. Now that they've grown up I can't get their food spicey enough.

There are some good recipes here:

http://www.crappie.com/recipe/all.html

Kevin

at home, i use my propane fish cooker and get the oil to about 425 before putting in the fish. the oil will lose temp after adding the fish.
at camp, i use a kitchen match to tell the right temp. oil at the right temp will strike the match within 2-3 seconds. allow your fish to cook until the pieces all start floating good, and let your oil get back to cooking heat between batches.

BTW, If you only get your oil temp to 350 and add your fish, then you will probably only be cooking at around 300 degrees or less, and cook as long as you want at that low temp and itll still turn out mushy on inside.

Good tips guys!!!


barndoor

Heat your oil above 350 degrees....oil won't absorb into food in grease above that...make sure when you add fish that it doesn't cool below 350 degrees....Learned that from a cajun cooking turkeys....

Lots of good ideas shared here, BUT --

Redfin knows how to cook crappie. Go back and read his post again. He knows how to cook crappie for a crowd. I had my share and some more at the TFF tourney. The only thing he left out was the secret recipe for his red sauce that we used for chip dip instead of putting it on the fish. Nobody ever said we had any class.

Try dusting them in flour, putting them in a pan, and sauteeing them in butter over med. heat, flipping 1-2 times. When almost done (the butter and flour will begin to brown)drizzle in some white wine (I use St. Genevieve). YUM!!!

I cook my fish as hot as my deep fryer will go which is 400 and I let them cook until they float for about 1 min. The first batch is the slowest, don't know why but it is. The first batch is probably about 5 minutes and after that 3-4 minutes. If you overload the fryer it will cool the oil too much.

Peanut oil holds up to heat the best. Many other oils will break down too fast at that temp.

Like others have said, the hotter grease makes the fish less greasy.

When cooking outside the trick with the match works. It will flame when the oil is hot enough.

Forget the thermometer. When water sprinkled on the oil pops at a quick pace, the oil is the right temperature.

I fried three crappie last night that I headed, gutted and scaled.....nobody would eat a one of them! Scared....and shocked when I put one on my plate and stared peeling the perfect white meat off the bone and ate the fried and crunchy tail...........when I gave a taste to my buddy...the other two crappie disappeared.......I had seen them done like this and wanted to try it on a few, though I hate scaling fish, I might do this with 3 to 4 each time as it sure is good that way.