My New Favorite Way to Prepare Catfish! Bonus: Catfish Poll

Wanted to share my new favorite way to prepare catfish with yall. I learned this from well known Wild Game and Fish Chef Jesse Griffiths.

What you want to do is take your catfish fillet and trim out all the red meat and any of that yellow fat often found in channels. Take your time and get as much as you can. You want to get it down to looking as white as snow if possible. Dont overlook the belly meat from larger fish (say 4lb+) that is some of the best meat! Be sure to fillet off that inner "skin" of the belly as well as the outside skin. That silver looking bit.

Cube those up to about the size of chicken nuggets. Get those good and cold by leaving them in the fridge for an hour or better yet give them a nice ice bath.

In a large bowl combine equal parts Yellow mustard (just like you put on your hot dogs) and heavy whipping cream. You can use whole milk in a pinch. Add hot sauce to that dredge to taste up to a whole other equal third! Or skip it. Personal preference there. I like my hot, many do not.

Take your cold and dredge coated fish nuggets and coat them in a FINE coating or your preference. Could be bread crumbs or panko etc. Avoid medium or large caliber, you want a fine blend of whatever it is you choose. I used the kind pictured below and it came out really well. I bet you can find it at your local Walmart.

Drop those into HOT 375 degree oil until done.

These come out great! My wife loves these and she "hates catfish". But prepared this way, she eats them up. With some fries and a cold beer... its about perfect as its gets!

Now I strongly prefer to do this with Blue Cat over Channels. Just has a lighter and "cleaner" flavor and a firmer texture. Across the board I favor blues. I take the channels if they are the right size but dont get as excited about it as I do when I have some blues to fillet up.

Between the two (Yes I know Flatheads are the best, but between the two novices can tangle with regularly) which do you prefer!?

One last note. If you want to learn more about Chef Jesse or see his other recipes check out https://www.themeateater.com/people/jesse-griffiths

He has tons of recipes there online. From bass sandwich's (works great with Sandies, Striper and Largemouth) to whole pan fried fish and more! Lots of really excellent stuff if you hunt as well. Whitetail, wild game stocks, etc. etc.

A blue cat always tastes better than a channel cat of the same size. I don't know what makes the difference, but man are those blues tasty!

Agreed. Even from the same water. I think its the diet. I know channels take live bait but I think blues just do so much more often. Channels are much more general opportunists. Thats my shoe string theory at least.

I think the taste difference is due to the fat found in the channels. It's just like a steak, fat is what holds the flavor.

I grind my own cornmeal !

Ok, heck it all sounds good to me guys, but the really big thing here is the oil you guys are using to cook your fish in. I don't have a clue as to why or how it makes the big difference it does, but you guys need to get you some cotton seed oil and then proceed.

Cotton seed oil really sets your fin and feather table fare at a different level. Cook your French fries after the fin and/or feather will really have your French fries all tasty as well as clean the oil if you want to keep it as like in a big deep fryer, but if like in a pan frying the frys just taste so much better cooked after the fin and feathers.

I know in the days of air fryers and cooking on the grill is big, but you really have not tasted this sort of table fare till you try it in cotton seed oil. Just say'n...

Sounds tasty !

Where to get cotton seed oil?

That stuff is $20 A gallon on the cheap side.


Bass Pro Shop...

I'm out on cottonseed oil.

Guess Im still old school. Love to fry them up in Pure Crisco.

I prefer good old fashioned Lard.

I know, I know, but this is totally out there guys. The taste is unbelievable. I thought Crisco forever was the best way also. Let me see what I can come up with for a source of cotton seed oil and I will get back here. You really have to try your fin and feathers in it, then it is just what you do when frying fin & feathers.

I'll second that..........I grew up here in West Texas on a cotton farm and cotton seed oil was a staple.We still use it on our occasional fish fries,after 5 by passes my wife insist on less frying and more air fryer but every couple months I still get the real deal.The last fry we had to use peanut oil..........good but not the same.

Great thread. I am a minimalist when it comes to frying fish. I like a light crisp breading. I shake my fish is a dry batter. I like the Louisiana crispy fish fry batter. I have a fish shaker and it does a good job of putting a light coating on the meat. I also like to fry bigger fish. By bigger I mean 6 to 8 pounders. I don't like the thin fillets from small fish. I prefer thicker pieces. And yes, I am a big fan of the belly meat. But, the biggest thing in the original post is about getting down to the white meat. If you know how to clean a catfish properly, you should have nothing but white left on the finished product. I have used most all the different kinds of oil out there but not cotton seed. Honestly, I'm not sure I can tell the difference. I like to make hush puppies and fry them after the fish. That's my oil cleanser and the taste of the fish does transfer to the cornbread batter when I drop 'em. Blues are better than channels but not enough so that I won't eat a channel cat right there with the blues. O fry in a big 16 quart cast iron dutch oven. I think the cast iron makes a difference in the evenness of the heat. I may have to give this wet batter a try. Thanks for sharing Dan!

CT

I am with you man on the bigger thicker chunks of the fish. The thin pieces always just taste like the cornmeal and Grease to me and end up like those pork rind chips basically, just not my taste. I don't use a batter at all really, me it's just cornmeal the kind that doesn't have sugar added, then some spices to give it some heat and bite to it. That is it. Basically a dry rub if you will. I will say it's dang sure hard to find any cornmeal that they didn't add sugar in it. Yes there is some sugar from just the corn, that is good great and fine. What I am talking about here guys is added sugar, it's getting to be a real problem jimo...

Now I will say I just bet Littlewheel's fresh ground cornmeal is to die for. I have ground up some before with my cousin, who has his own farm and it is really much better than what we have to choose from at the store. Big Sugar, works really hard to make sure any and everyone uses their product (sugar) in everything now days. Littlewheel ever wanted to sell some of his own cornmeal I could slobber all over someone I know that would buy it too...

Now its just my taste but I have never been someone that likes anything sweet on any of my meats. Many people do, I am getting to the point now days that more people do than not. The recipes use the sugars as a combiner, be it brown sugar, honey, syrup or just white sugar, it helps make all the other spices stick and stay in place and soak in...

I never liked that as a young boy and now my diabetes darn sure doesn't allow it. But you can use different things for combiners. If making like a sauce I use just vinegar and yellow mustard and then all the other seasonings in a pan and bring to a boil on the stove. But if there is any sugars, it's a natural form of it like maybe from corn or tomatoes. No honey or syrup.

If it's a dry rub and you want a little extra, I would use a whisked egg or 2 and then add in the seasonings and batter it like that. You really want to get into the batter then milk or better yet heavy cream, egg and all your cornmeal and spices and in a mixer, let that beat that mixture to your finished batter. Least for me and my taste buds.

Now I am not saying I don't love honey or a good syrup, cause I do, but I don't eat the stuff anymore because of the diabetes, but if I could it goes on breads, pancakes and deserts. I get to craving that sort of thing so bad at times lol.

Typically I make my own cornmeal breading but for a store bought variety Andy’s is about the best I’ve been able to find

When I do big cooks for 30-40 people I will go up to Orschlens and pick it up instead of making it myself

Ok fellows, I had hoped I might could have got some what of a price break buying from one of the cotton gins here local. They have the cotton seed oil in boxed cases of 6 - 1- gallon jugs. Heck I was hoping for a price break if I just buy 2 or 3 boxes of the stuff...
Well they have this oil marketed now and it's 20 bucks a gallon. Only price breaks are buying in big drums and you jug it yourself or just pump it from the drum as you need it.

So, all I can say is if you ever got the chance give the fins and/or feathers a try in the cotton seed oil a try, it's worth the 20 bucks a gallon for me and my taste buds. Yes, it's not cheap, but it's darn sure good. I sure hoped I could have made a big score at a gin and get the price down, heck I would have done that and sent any of you that wanted some for like half the price it is would make it all worth the shipping and everything. All I can say is I tried, but failed.

Still wished you guys could try it once, then at least you would know why I stand on the line here and I will just fry mine in the cotton seed oil...

Rowdy, we grind and sell cornmeal nearly every month at Canton , along with my homemade ice cream business. Lots of times we don’t go in January or February though. Next time I grind, I will holler. Our cornmeal is a little coarser. Makes really good cornbread and the fish is really crispy with the coarser meal.

Dan, I love this recipe. I use Panola on the hot sauce. It's made in my in-law's back yard (almost). If you guys ever get a chance, try shake and bake original or pork flavor for your coating. It's a game changer!

Shannon, you never cease to impress me! One of these days I want to come out to your place and just walk around with a cold one (beer or ice cream, either one, lol)

I’ve had lots of great opportunities come my way. Stubby took a liking to me and crammed catfishing into me. My Dad taught me the mechanical things. I have had awesome instructors and was lucky enough to be the student.

That was nice of you to think of trying to hook up your Catfishing brothers with some of that Cotton seed oil on a discount! Thoughtful of ya bud!

Glad you like it. That Chef Jesse is an expert with wild fish and game and shares all his info and recipes freely.

I will for sure try to the shake n bake pork! Now... I just need to catch some catfish lol. Its been slow for me last few trips. VERY slow ha.

If you clean blue cat right they only need rolling in corn meal to be as good as fresh water fish gets.

+1

Littlewheel

There is a couple of guys around here that I mentioned you grinding your own cornmeal, while I was try to see if I could score some cotton seed oil. We are going to want some of that stuff of yours. The darn marketing guys are what ruining a lot of things here in America, they are pricing things way out there where the working guy never stands a chance. Then there is so much of this new stuff doesn't even work right, least not for long. I am still torqued up that I couldn't get a price break on some cotton seed oil...

I bet your cornmeal is awesome and the next time you fire up the mill, I sure hope it's where I can get some. Now I will say my buying some from you won't be like that 3000lbs. of cheese you went and got here while back lol...

I can mail some cornmeal . Ice cream s another story !

That mailing of some of your cornmeal would make the next time you fire up the mill a certainty, but heck I still want to get down that way and meet up. My wife has wanted to go to that Canton event for at least the 34 years we have been married anyway. We made the one in Bowie and Weatherford more than a few times.

Heck I want to check out your mill setup, this little Deere of yours is a must see item for sure.