I have to see if I'm alone in this. I've decided I'm out on catfish, eating that is. I went out on the lake on Sunday and got a 19inch bluecat, pretty fish. I cleaned it and soaked it in water overnight and I baked it last night with lemon, a little butter, and salt and pepper. You could tell it was catfish and a bottom feeder and the texture wasn't that great. A truely good fish can be grilled or baked with very little seasoning, like a crappie, sunfish, or any of my faves from the coast. From now on I'm just taking a pic of cats and they will be released. Am I out of order? I know we have plenty of cat fans but out of you cat fans is the primary way you cook cats by frying? Am I missing something? Maybe I need a new recipe but being a personal trainer and athelete I need to keep it grilled or baked. Are bass better than cats?

Keith,

I've had many really excellent catfish, but I've had a few that tasted like cow manure smells. I'm not sure what does it.

With cats, big or small, I bleed them first. I keep a ball peen hammer around to render them unconscious. I lop off their tail, and hang them for 15 to 30 minutes just like I would a hog or a steer.

I fillet and skin all my fish, including cats. I first remove the two side fillets and then I skin them. I take the belly as one big piece which I skin on both sides. The belly lining tastes kind of nasty, so its gotta go. The side pieces are used like any other large fillet. The belly gets cut into "fingers" which gets battered or broiled. They have the consistency of lobster.

But, before I cook the fish, I soak it overnight in a salt brine of ice water.

Don't give up on the cats. Most really are delicious.

Good Fishn'
Ken

What kind of water did you catch it in? All fish will take on the taste of the water they live in. I am experimenting with raising CC in relatively fresh pond water, shale bottom, and fully expect them to not have the traditional 'musky' or muddy taste. Soaking the meat in water can not entirely eliminate the taste from brackish water. I wouldn't want to continue living if I had to stop eating catfish fillets!!!

On a side note, Keith, I believe it is a common misconception that catfish are bottom feeders. Channel Cats and especially Blue Cats are considered by many to be topline predators.

Yeah, I caught this one suspended on a shad. It was a nice local core of engineers lake that's pretty nice and natural(lavon). Are ujust frying them? Everything tastes better fried. As far as bleeding them, that's tough on the boat and if you have a close one that the game warden might check. I won't give up on them quite yet but I need a recipe. Maybe soaking in the salt water would make a difference. Do you ever grill them catmando? Or anyone else? I love blackened catfish poboys but again, that's alot of seasoning. I'm just wondering if their popularity is linked to being fried or blackened. If there is a good way to grill them then I would. They have a good amounbt of meat per fish as well and I bet people like that aspect.

Blue cats usually aren't as good as CC. I'd rather eat fried CC than most anything else.

Some have said that soaking bullhead fillets in milk overnight in the fridge helps get rid of the foul taste.

Maybe that would work for other catfish as well.

I've cooked them many ways. We grilled one of the last big fillets, and it was wonderful. I wish I had some pictures of how to grill them.

I guess this would work with a gas grill, but I use charcoal exclusively. I've got several grills, but my favorite is a small Brinkman. I tried to find a link to it, but the closest I could find was this

I start my charcoal outside the grill in a "chimney." I go out behind the barn and cut a small hardwood -- usually a maple about 2-3 inches in diameter. I cut two pieces about 14-18 inches long and lay them on the front and back edges of the charcoal tray. When the charcoal is good and hot, I dump the briquettes in between the pieces of wood and close the top of the grill.

In the mean time, I've prepared the fillets. I cut them into individual serving size pieces of 3-5 oz. I make a "boat" out of aluminum foil. In the bottom piece of foil, I place the fillets. I sprinkle them with cayenne, paprika, and lemon pepper -- and sometimes a little crab boil seasoning (like Old Bay). I place a big pat of butter on each piece. Then I add about a half-cup of white wine.

I tightly seal another piece of foil over the top, and put the package on a slow cooking grill, with the grill top down. I let it steam for 20-30 minutes all sealed up. I check it periodically. When its firm and flaky I remove the top piece of foil, and close the grill again. If the wine has evaporated out, I add another half cup. I let it cook in the smoky moist heat for at least another 15 minutes. By then, you should have firm , but juicy fillets, slightly browned on top from the smoke.

Serve it with a nice white rice, and a steamed green vegetable like asparagus or broccoli. It goes great with a good cool dry white wine.

Ahhh! Excuse me. I'm drooling on the keyboard. I gotta go catch a catfish! See you later.

Good fishn'
Ken


P.S. A little guy like this . . .


. . . sure tastes good when battered and fried like this!

you guys and your fried!!! Now that grilled recipe sounds mighty fine!!! I will try it. I will also try it with other fish. We need to get you boys off of the grease so you can live a long life to manage many many ponds. One of the resons I love fish is because of how healthy it is but I won't beat that horse any more:)

Now, here's a question. Would you prefer a crappie, sunfish, tilapia or walleye prepared the same way or if you had your choice would you still choose catfish? Fried or grilled. Where do bass rank in all of this???

I have cleaned and eaten a lot of CC since getting my pond. Most would grade out as B+ or better on taste and texture; there have only been a couple that tasted lousy and there was one last Fall that just didn't get cooked right - burnt & raw in adjacent bites.

I have not had a bad tasting CC since I started soaking the fillets in water (fresh) for 24 to 48 hours. I don't know what else this does, but it ensures that the last of the blood has left the meat.

I tried breading & deep frying with spectacularly bad results; to date the only way my family likes CC is pan fried in butter (OK) or grilled over charcoal (excellent). For either, my wife marinates the fillets in extra-virgin olive oil with spices (I like cajun seasoning the best, but she has also used dill) for about 15 minutes. She bought a perforated steel griddle for the charcoal grill to do CC on, which works well. A fresh (well, soaked for 2 days) CC of not more than about 3 pounds can be cooked up into a wonderful entree. Larger ones are not quite as good, IMHO, I believe mostly due to the disparity in meat thickness which makes them harder to cook evenly.

P.S. I discard the belly meat, but one forum member (who ???) from down South liked the belly meat best!

For grease -- canola oil only, but sometimes olive oil.

For my grilling recipe, it works best with big dry fish. My three favorites are catfish, striper, and walleye. Small fish, like crappie and bluegill cook way too fast.

Large mouth bass from my pond are delicious, but for some reason they don't grill up as well as other fish. LMB from other waters frequently do not taste very good -- they taste like pine-sol. Big ones from the pond usually get broiled. Sorry -- but the small ones get fried.

Theo,

I'm not sure I'm down south, but me thinks it was me who posted that. I love the belly meat from a big un. When we broil it, we call it West Virginia Lobster.

Ken

Try 'em on the BBQ, covered, sitting in a tin-foil dish with a little butter and seasoning... But then, those pics of the battered nuggets has me salivating!!! I'd be willing to die a little early to eat a plate of those!!!

Keith in my opinion tilapia taste better than most of the pond fresh water fish and because it has a firm texture can be prepared in more ways than most other fish. It is very good on the grill but I also like catfish just not as much. Have any of you tried the emerils fish rub? You put just a little bit of olive oil on the fish to get the rub to stick and then grill the filet. It is really good on most any fish. Blue gill are really good also. Now if we could just get Condello to cook some of his giants at the next Pond Boss Conference that would be a real treat!

Keith Wolfe , I have baked many of the CC I have caught from our pond..in butter lemon salt and paprika, very tasty. Only one CC earlier this spring had a strong or muddy taste. Could just be the time of year or water conditions, I'm not sure. But hubby says he likes it baked better then the fried. SO don't give up just yet and try soaking in milk or salt water before you bake it.
Happy eating!

It should be against the law to cook a channel cat any other way, but with corn meal, a little flour, salt and pepper. Hot grease. Hush puppies, taters n' onions.

Theo, flathead cats have very tasty belly meat. Lots of southerners think it is the best part.

I guess, to explain a little, sometimes I have to cut weight to make a weighin so I can get a little fanatical even on the healthy fat.

I'll have to try that grilled recipe. Crappie are pretty high on my list, whereas bass are a little lower.

Cat, you might want to try leaving the top piece of foil off. If you're going to the effort of adding hardwood smoke why prevent it from contacting your fish? You would have to adjust cooking time, but with the grill top down it will definitely cook.

This past weekend I caught an 8 lb Flathead in public waters. I Filleted him first then I soaked him in Milk. I fried half of him in Olive oil with corn meal then the other half I baked in the oven with all sorts of spices and a honey glaze.....Now THATs good for you and it truely tasted better than the fried!!!

Between all three catfish the Flathead REALLY does tate the best...there is just no way to really grow them in ponds....

ah ha, the illusive flathead. I can't say I've ever eaten one but that's a good way to get a good comparrison. In my opinion a good fish is better grilled and fry the ones that need help. This reminds me of trying to make a shark taste good. I would love to eat a flathead as I've heard they are very good.

They are REALLY good they don't really taste like the other catfishes...

Keith, if I understand your comment about shark, you probably haven't eaten Mako. They swim in waters with Swordfish, they eat the same prey as Swordfish, and they eat the Swords themselves.

Mako = Swordfish.

I'm going to go catfishing this weekend. I would love to love them and will give it my honest best! I'm going to try that white wine recipe that sounded so good. Never tried a mako but the blacktips were supposed to be good and they had a funny taste. We even cut the tail so they wouldn't release their urine into their meat or whatever the heck they do. that's supposed to make them taste good but nuh uh, that's a big negatory. Aparently mercury is a concern as well in shark so unless I get a mako I do know I'm out on shark.

all good suggestions above. let me offer mine. i always soak in salt water for 24 hours at least. seems to take the blood and foul taste out of meat. I then soak the fillets in a marinade of choice, one of my favorites is mesquite or lemon pepper, for about 4 hours before cook time. I have a holland grill, which has a drip pan under grate which i can close off. i then add about 1 gallon of water mixed with a tablespoon of liquid smoke, which you will have to replentish as you cook due to boil off. Once grill and water are up to temp, i place fillets on clean grates which i spray with non stick spray to help remove later. i season fillets with a seafood seasoning , although u dont have too. I keep lid down and cook for 20 minutes or till done, they come out moist and very good. try that, no grease, frying{although i do love it that way too}, etc and a good healthy meal

i never had bad tasting cooked fish when i was a kid i cooked and cleaned what ever i caught.does this mean i am imune to bad tasting fish?

i never had bad tasting cooked fish when i was a kid i cooked and cleaned what ever i caught.does this mean i am imune to bad tasting fish?