Okay so I am having this issue where when I cook the delectable little crappie filets, my wife is complaining about the texture of the fish being a quite a bit mushy. I cook with whatever oil is available in the cupboard, sometimes even canola oil. Can anyone tell me what my problem might be or what I am doing wrong. Too much effort put forth to gain these babies and I'd like to enjoy these more. Could it be my cleaning techniques? Could leaving them in salt water for a few hours before I cook have this effect?

Just thought I'd ask the community, thanks for any pointers guys and have a great fishing weekend, looks like its gonna be great one!

Make sure your grease is at 350 before you drop them in. They should be flakey not mushy. Sounds like your grease is not hot enough.

Also if your frying fish I like the fillets to be thin, if its a thick fillet I may fillet it twice. If the fish are biting great I will throw back the big ones and keep the 10.5's to 12 inch fish. I think those fish are the best eating. If your grilling throw that big thick slab on there with some Tonys on it!

I think the type of oil may cause part of problem,I use strictly peanut oil for fish and birds
fish even if under cooked ,I do not think would be mushy they would look raw and uncooked
I never put carppie in salt water so yes that could be part of it

No need to soak your crappie in salt water. Dont think that is causing them to be mushy but I only soak catfish. Is your oil geting hot enough?

Mushiness is usually a sign of the oil not being hot enough.

Like others have said its oil too cold. Not hot enough to start or your putting too much in fryer/skillet.

I would not soak them in salt either.
I have found that if I dip them in a egg wash and coat them with progresso bread crumbs, it seals the fillets and they really cook up nice and crisp and flakey!
Give it a try!

I know people get all caught up in how they cook their fish but I use the KISS method - Keep It Simple Stupid.

My fillets are generally frozen and thawed before frying up. They stay in a cold water bath - usually the thawed/frozen water. If for some reason, I'm cooking fish just caught, I will rinse them really good with very cold water.

My coating is yellow corn meal, salt & pepper. Put that mixture in a ziploc baggie (been doing it that way for years) or one of those shaker basket things from BPS if you wanna be fancy). That's it. Take your wet fillets and coat them with the corn meal mixture. Drop them in peanut oil that is slightly over 350 degrees. Slightly over because the cold fillets will cool it off a little. Careful going over 350 degrees with cooking oils.

When they float, they are done. Break one open to confirm.

My other coating mixture and method is:
corn meal, salt, pepper & crushed red pepper (purchased at asian food markets - don't know why this is better. It just is.)
I fill up a bowl with sriracha hot sauce and run my fillets through that to drench them in the hot sauce. Then I coat them with the pepper/corn meal mixture. Cook in the oil. This is a spicy fish.

I do at least 1 300+ fillet fish fry every year and have never had a complaint....yet.

+1. & +1 on the salt water. The only freshwater fish that I know of that needs a salt water soak is white & striped bass.

your taking them out of the freezer and running hot water over them to quickly thaw them, and ruining the fillets would be my guess. let them thaw naturally. take them out early in the am, if your cooking that eve.

and dont even think abt thawing them in the microwave.

if your oil is hot enough and there still mushy try shocking them in ice water for a few min befor cooking them

Could this have something to do with the fish being dead in the livewell before filleting on these warm summer days? When I can catch them, they go straight into the ice bath after coming off the hook.

Tom

No.
Mushy fried fish is only a result of two things:

1) Your oil is not hot enough when frying
2) Your oil is too cold when frying


What happens when you fry fish is that the very hot oil cooks the fish in a short period of time. Some of the oil is naturally soaked up in to the fillet.
If the oil is not hot enough, it allows the fish to soak up more of the oil - thus causing it to be mushy and not crisp/flaky.