Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Frying Fish!

So my Dad has always taken care of frying up our catches and now I'm lost. We are having his 60th Birthday party at my place tomorrow night and I need help on frying the fish. I have a turkey fryer I use for my homebrews and I hoping that it will work fine.

My questions are

What kind of oil to use?
Preferred recipes ?
And how long to fry them?

I received a recipe here at work from a lady that is-
4 eggs 1-2 bottles of beer and milk
Corn meal 50% and Flour 50% A lot of pepper and some salt...

Any suggestions would be great!

For what it's worth....

I use peanut oil, Zataranins fish fry if you can find it, heat the oil to 350 and fry until the fish float. Don't forget the hushpuppies!

If you can't find the fish fry, I've mixed flour, corn meal, salt and a healthy dose of red pepper,

Hope you have a great time!

Peanut oil is great, I have used canola oil with success also. Get a thermometer for the oil, and I might take it up to 375-400 degrees. Watch the temp as you add the fish, and you can begin to judge how many pieces to fry at a time, and what temp works best for the oil.

Sounds like a good time!

coconut oil is really good and give a light tropical flavor its really good on shrinmp !

Thanks for the quick responses! Sounds like I have a couple different choices with oil. I have 5 bags of Catfish fillets and about ten bags of bluegill/crappie. Started smoking the Pork butt today too!

I'm hoping that everyone brings a fishing pole along and we can replenish the freezer too

What time should we be there?

For the big crawfish boil or fish fry, 5 pounds!

5 pounds

small packs:

pack of 6

Is this the recommended stuff confederate?

I go with Sparkplug's suggestion.

After I fillet and skin the fish, I soak them for at least and hour in a saltwater solution to remove any remaining blood. It can provide kind of a nasty fishy/muddy/weedy flavor.

The fillets then get coated in a dry mix of flour, cornstarch, and my my chosen spice mix of the day. I like McCormick's Old Bay, Zatarans, and many other fish, crab, red-meat spice mixtures. The cornstarch in the recipe will help make the fries very crispy. I usually put the mixture in a plastic shopping bag, with the number of fish pieces that will easily fit in the fryer. Then do a "shake and bake."

I use the same mixture from above, mixed with water or beer, to further coat the pieces mentioned above. If I'm using water, I add baking powder for the extra thickness that the beer bubbles provide. This is done in a deep bowl.

I mostly use canola oil at 375 F degrees. But peanut oil will do just as well. It is just a lot more expensive.

I do find it very important to keep the temperature between 350 and 375 F degrees.

Cook till golden.

HA if you bring a few beers, anytime!

So if I get the Zatarain's I still do the eggs and beer and milk mixture to get the breading to stick? or just beer?

FWIW I listen to the fish fillets as they are frying to judge time. When you first drop them, the frying sound is vigorous and loud. Suddenly, the noise drops off a good bit. They are done. Make sure you cook similar size and thickness pieces together. Try a piece from the first batch right away to see if you are ok with the results.

I like taste testing

I may even do a trial run tonight...

That's the stuff! Give it a try, esp. if you like a little spice!

You won't need to do the batter stuff. It comes as a premixed batter. I just rinse the fish off and roll it around in the mix.

All this talk of fried fish is making me hungry! We may just have to go out tonight and get some.

Everyone seems to have a favorite way of frying fish and anything you do will probably yield great tasting fish providing that your oil is hot enough.

We like our fish crispy so we've always cut the filets into strips 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide and always fry them for a while after they float.

Zatarans Fish Fry (corn flour - seasoned or unseasoned) is just fine but we finally settled on cornmeal as our choice of coating, adding salt and pepper as we choose.

To get the cornmeal to stick, we've used egg, mustard, mayonnaise, hot sauce or even Tabasco. No difference in the flavor of the final product.

We use a high sided stock pot and three to four inches of oil. The oil has to be hot (almost smoking) and will bubble up as you drop in the fish pieces. Drop in two or three pieces and as the oil bubbles recede, add six to eight more pieces, two at a time, always waiting for the oil bubbles to recede between drops. When the fish floats, it's done, but, as I said, I always fry mine longer because I like it crispy.

Of course, this method is good if you're cooking for three or four people. To cook a lot of fish, you'll need bigger equipment or more frying units.

I actually prefer Tony Chachere fish fry but doubt that they can find it up there. I think it has a better flavor but then my taste buds are warped. I put Tabasco on everything.

I didn't know Tony's made a fish fry but I don't think I'll try it. Pam likes her shrimp and fish dredged in flour so she does hers in flour and mine in corn meal. Beyond that, all of the cooking is done by her in her way and I'm not going to rock the boat.

I don't use a lot of Tabasco but I do like a drop of it on bite sized fish pieces - gives it a little zip that really is nice.

Years ago I had fish dredged in a product called 'Shore Lunch' that was very good. Probably available online.

If you want to add some zip to the taste of your fried fish, add some Zatarains granulated seafood boil seasoning to your unseasoned fish fry....you don't really need to add much either...

From what I understand, the oil itself can get kind of 'cooked out' or 'used up,' so that's something to watch for.

The way I like to prepare the fish first is to rinse in cool salt water as well. This will pull all the fish fish taste from the meet.

Cold smoke with zesty Italian salad dressing. Lay filets flat on a cookie sheet and cover with the salad dressing. You will see how the chemical reaction will cold smoke the meet. The filets will turn white when done.

Now they are super super tender. Batter up and fry up.

Cheers Don.