Fried Catfish
I’m not a big seafood person. Beyond fried catfish, I have never even given seafood a fighting chance. We never had it in our home and I’ve never ordered it at a restaurant. The reasoning for this is really a simple one: Other than catfish, my mother was not a seafood person.
When your mama don’t like it, don’t nobody get it!
My mother’s grandfather was a very superstitious man and back in the day there was an old wive’s tale that it wasn’t safe to eat fish unless you drank buttermilk with it because if you accidentally swallowed a bone, they believed the buttermilk would dissolve it. Of course we know this isn’t true but my mother says her disliking of buttermilk kept fish out of her diet until her grandfather finally said he thought it would be okay if the kids drank “sweet milk” with their fish. Sweet milk is the old fashioned term for whole milk. If you ever want to know why they called whole milk sweet, just drink a glass of buttermilk and you’ll have your answer!
A lot of people outside and inside of the South tend to blanket all southern cooking styles into one category but Southern food really has a lot of variances and relies heavily on what is available in each region. Our ancestors ate what was convenient, just like everyone else. Seeing as how my people can down from the Carolinas to be among the first settlers in the Tennessee Valley, it makes sense that we wouldn’t cook in the same style as a coastal Southerner.
Growing up, all of the catfish we ate was pond raised on my Papa Reed’s farm. He went once a year and got “fingerlings” (baby catfish) to stock his pond with. He’d feed them regularly throughout the year until they got big enough to be table worthy. Then, he’d drain the pond until the water was about waist deep and some of the men in the family would get in and stretch a net across and walk the length of the pond to catch the fish. Each family could get what they wanted and the rest were sold to restaurants and such by the pound.
Most of my personal memories of eating catfish are at the family table, sitting beside my brother and sister and giggling when someone’s lemon “misfired” and shot juice on someone else. Catfish is a “clean” tasting fish. It doesn’t really taste or smell at all like some seafood does (a plus if you aren’t a seafood person!). Simple and inexpensive to prepare, this is a quick and easy main course and I promise not to make you drink buttermilk with it!
You’ll need: Oil for frying in, a bit of salt, a bit of pepper, and corn meal.
You can use whichever corn meal you prefer. I like white corn meal. My mother uses white self rising and just puts in a little less salt (self rising already has salt in it). You can use yellow plain or self rising corn meal as well. When in doubt, go with what you have on hand. No sense in going out and spending more money!
I’m not a Martha White devotee by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just what hopped into my buggy first. 
You’ll need some catfish fillets. Pond raised is good if possible.
Pour about a half inch of oil into your skillet. I’m using my cast iron skillet here but you don’t have to.
If you are more comfortable cooking in a regular or nonstick skillet, go for it.
Whatever cranks your tractor
Put about a cup of corn meal in a bowl.
This is where you can get creative if you like.
Add a bit of cayenne pepper if you want some heat to your catfish, or just season your meal with seasoned salt.
As for me and mine, I like to keep it simple.
Add a little salt (about 1/2 tsp)
and about 1/2 tsp pepper. This is totally to your taste.
Now my meal is seasoned just fine for me. Stir that up a bit.
Dip your fillet into the mixture and press down gently.
Repeat with other side.
Place in hot oil.
This is the part that gives folks the most problems. When frying, your oil should be hot enough to sear the outside of what you are cooking but not so hot that it burns before it gets done inside. If your oil isn’t hot enough, whatever you are frying will absorb more in absence of that immediate searing and thus be greasy.
What I do is heat my oil while I am preparing the dish. I heat it on medium high for three to five minutes and then I turn it down to medium a minute or so before I’m ready to cook with it. Don’t worry, you’ll get the feel for it, I promise!
Let cook until browned and then turn over to brown the other side.
Once done, place fillets on paper towel lined plate to drain.
I serve mine with lemon wedges. I LOVE to squeeze lemon all over my catfish.
Hushpuppies are a must, but that is a tutorial for another day!
Ingredients
- Catfish Fillets (I made 4 for this recipe)
- 1 Cup corn meal (type of your choice - see tutorial for more info)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- In large skillet, heat 1/2 inch of oil over medium high heat. Place corn meal in medium bowl. Add salt and pepper, stir. Dip each fillet into the breading on both sides to coat. Turn stove eye down to medium. Place each fillet in oil and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides. Remove to drain on paper towel lined plate. Serve with lemon wedges, vinegar, or tartar sauce.
Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by ZipList Recipe Pluginhttp://www.southernplate.com/2009/08/fried-catfish.html
Ingredients
- Catfish Fillets (I made 4 for this recipe)
- 1 Cup corn meal (type of your choice - see tutorial for more info)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Instructions
- In large skillet, heat 1/2 inch of oil over medium high heat. Place corn meal in medium bowl. Add salt and pepper, stir. Dip each fillet into the breading on both sides to coat. Turn stove eye down to medium. Place each fillet in oil and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides. Remove to drain on paper towel lined plate. Serve with lemon wedges, vinegar, or tartar sauce.
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- Easy Chicken And Dumplings
- Chocolate Cobbler
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Aug 12 2009. Filed under Main Course.
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Funny, we were always told that we had to have “light bread” and pickles when we ate fried fish – for the same reason I’m guessing. I never ate catfish because I always thought it tasted like mud. LOL. But I do remember fish fries!
What timing! I just got home from the grocery store & bought a mess of catfish because it was on a really good sale. I haven’t made fried catfish in a long time, but that’s dinner tonight! Oh and it must be served with grits. That’s the way we always had it growing up (I’m from SC) and we only ever had catfish if we’d caught it that day in my uncle’s pond! My kids love all fish, no matter what it is, but they REALLY love fried catfish & grits.
MD, you just made me remember something I hadn’t thought about in YEARS! My grandmother always fixed grits when we had catfish, and she ALWAYS put a spoonful of the grease (with some fried cornmeal bits, too) right in the middle of her grits (sorta like gravy) and it was GOOD! Tell me how people can survive without saving their greast to cook with–I can’t imagine a life without bacon grease!
Apparently the ‘folklore’ for fish eating varies per geographical region because when I was growing up we were taught never to eat fish and milk in the same meal. None of it matters as I to this day do not like fish. I will eat shrimp but no fish-not even canned tuna or salmon.
My hubby was taught the same thing. He said the first time he was served fish in school with his carton of milk, he thought they were trying to kill him. He didn’t eat and went home hungry. The next day when all the kids didn’t die and came back to school, he figured it was an old wives tale.
Oh bless his heart! I read that and thought of a little boy going hungry to keep from being poisoned by his school! lol
I just love all of our little histories and wives tales though, sure keeps things interesting and makes for great stories later!
Gratefully ,
Christy
I’m delighted to get this recipe. Like you, I’m not a seafood person for the very same reasons as you gave and likewise, grew up with catfish being the closest thing to “sea” food as we had. Growing up, Daddy loved to fish off the bank of the river or nearby lakes and catfish was usually what he brought home. We often had a big old “fish fry” out in the back yard! I’m SO GLAD to hear you comment on the “clean” fish because, while I love fried catfish, I still have to psych myself up to eat it because I’ve always associated catfish with them being scavengers and eating the nasty stuff off the bottom of a lake (EWWWWW). I guess I’d never given thought to someone “hand raising” them in a “clean” pond and hand feeding them so they don’t have to scavenge!!!! What a delightful thought and completely changes my view on eating it. Thanks Christy for clearing up the images in my head!!!! I will now make a point of shopping for catfish and looking for the “pond raised” notation on the label!! Can’t wait for your hush puppy recipe to accompany the fried catfish!!
There are some ladies the next town over that make the best fried catfish, fries, and hush puppies. they started out in a renovated horse trailer and now are in the garage of their house. I don’t know what their secret seasoning is but I would be willing to trade them my gumbo recipe for it! i do miss their sweet tea, it comes in glasses about the size of a goldfish bowl. They are an almost never indulged splurge nowadays and darn the carbs! Your catfish sure does look pretty and makes my organic salad with organic turkey lunch look awful boring. I like that tart thing going on with seafood too…vinegar on my fries and fish n chips. All of us here on SP do have a lot in common, don’t we? I have a theory that we are all shirt-tail kin and just haven’t figured it out yet!
We always had to keep vinegar on the table when eating catfish. If my parents or grandparents thought we might’ve swallered a bone we would be forced to drink some of the vinegar. They would ask if we swallowed a bone, we always said no but it didn’t always work. I only remember swallowing one small bone but I probably drank vinegar 100 times. I guess I loved fried catfish more than I hated vinegar. Once we turned about 10 years old we had “outgrown” the need to drink vinegar after swallowing a bone and the vinegar quit making appearances on the dinner table. My brother was about 3 years older than me so once he got past the “needin vinegar stage” he would say ” I think Debbi just swallowed a bone”…. and then laugh as I was drinking vinegar..
I love catfish. Red Lobster has a very good fried catfish on it’s menu here in Wisconsin.
The best times for fishing up here is in early spring right after the ice goes off the lakes and in late fall when the waters are getting ready to freeze over—and of course, if you’re among the hearty folk, ice fishing is great. The fish are firm (not mushy) and fresher tasting.
It is funny that you posted this today. Friday I stopped and picked up some fresh catfish and we cooked it outside on the side burner of our gas grill. I fixed some buttered potatoes and had some cole slaw. It brought back great memories of having fish fries at my Grandaddy’s. I coated my fish with flour and corn meal. The only thing that was missing was the corn bread. We always had corn bread, that way if you swalled a bone the corn bread would help get the bone down.
The fish fry that we would have at my Grandaddy’s would be fresh fish usually just caught that day. It would be white perch, flounder and of course catfish. My uncle knew that catfish was my favorite, so he would tell who ever was cooking to make sure that some was set aside for me.
My hubby said that he enjoyed our little fish fry so much, that he was ready for me to get some more catfish to have another one.
We love fried catfish; last night we had fried catfish poor boys for dinner dressed with lettuce/dill pickle/tomato slices and a bit of ketchup. (I am from New Orleans – poor boys -aka po-boys – are a staple down here.)
I coat my filets in yellow mustard and let them spend some time in the refrigerator before I coat them with my seasoned corn meal/flour mixture. We always fry seafood in a big old cast iron dutch oven – I find it holds the heat better.
To this day I will not drink milk……..of ANY kind when I eat fish!! But there is nothing like a big ‘ole glass of sweet tea to wash it down!! Soak that fish in buttermilk and this roll it in seasoned cornmeal, fry it and serve it with cole slaw and what a meal you have!!
~Salutes you with her glass of iced tea~ YES MA’AM!
Fish were meant to be fried….you go Southern Plate…!!!
~grins and giggles~
We have had many family suppers of fried fish,usually catfish. They would be fried outside in a big iron pot and served with fries, hushpuppies, and cole slaw, and always sweet iced tea. When the weather was cool, we had grits , gravy and white bread along with fish.We always had lemon wedges on hand in the case of a “bone incident”. As far as the thing about whole milk being called sweet milk in the South–A friend of mine had some new neighbors and she invited them to supper and served biscuits. The new neighbor asked for the recipe and said she had never made biscuits before and was eager to try them out. A while later she was asked if she had made biscuits yet and how they turned out. She admitted that she had made them but they were too sweet.Turns out she had used condensed milk (Eagle Brand) instead of whole milk.
Oh goodness, those family gatherings sound so wonderful. Got my heart stirring just thinking about it. and Bless that lady’s heart for trying the biscuits! lol I bet she was surely surprised with the flavor!
Gratefully
christy
Oh My Goodness! I just watched your video and it is great! I love, love, love your website and I can’t wait to get your cookbook. I’m from North Georgia and it tickles me that you cook the same way I do for my family and as a bonus you even talk like me.
CHRISTY WE DID THE MILK THING TOO EITHER YOU HAD SWEET MILK OF BUTTERMILK. AND ALWAYS IF THE BUTTERMILK DIDN’T WORK YOU DID A WAD OF LIGHT BREAD.LOL. MY DAD WAS A AVID FISHERMAN AND HUNTER SO A LOT OF WILD MEAT WAS IN OUR DIET, BUT NOTHING LIKE FRIED CATFISH, HUSHPUPPIES, FRENCH FRIES AND COLESLAW. YUMMY MAKING MY OWN MOUTH WATER.
MY HUSBAND HAD NEVER HAD CATFISH UNTIL WE GOT TOGETHER. HE IS FROM UP NORTH SO HE THOUGHT CATFISH TASTED LIKED MUD AND WOULD NOT EAT IT ,BUT NOW SINCE I CONVERTED HIM TO A SOUTHERNER HE LOVES IT.
Hey Theresa, sure does sound like you had you one more good Daddy who provided for his family!
.
I’ve just about got my husband converted, too! He is from Georgia but he’s taken a but more work than you’d normally think to get broken in
Gratefully,
christy
I am Christys brother. She makes fun of me but she does use some of my recipies. I think she needs to advertise a lil for my restaurant Hickory Barn Barbeque. Aint nuthin more southern than BBQ and me of course. Good luck Hoss.
Hi Christy, love your site, but misinformation is misinformation. Pond raised fish is just about as nasty as anything other than chicken factories. Our peanut farm was rented a few years ago to a fellow who raises farm-raised catfish in a “modern” catfish operation called aquaculture. It is a pond filled with water, fingerling catfish intorduced, and fed Catfish Chow (yup-same as that Chow), aka dog food, and antibiotics and pesticides called parasiticides, until they are large enough to be commercially harvested. The problem with the farm-raised catfish and the pond-raised catfish that Papa Reed raised is the catfish excrement. Yes, all animals, fish included, do that. Without fresh flowing water, the catfish grow up in a very unclean environment, and, as you know, catfish are scavenger fish. FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has received reports that some aquaculture producers are using chemical grade formaldehyde as a parasiticide drug for their fish. Google “aquaculture” or “fish farms”, or go to http://www.FDA.gov and search for aquaculture. And be wary of WallyWorld and Big Box Club fish; it’s mostly imported from China where there are very loose standards for cleanliness and chemicals. Read the lables carefully. Nuff said. We all need to learn more about what we are feeding our loved ones, where it comes from, and what’s in it. Say NO to farmed fish. Hope you’ll educate your readers who are now running out to purchase “pond” fish cause Christy told’em to.
You just educated ‘em! Thanks for taking the time to share your input and knowledge on the subject. It’s always good to get more sides to things, especially when as much thought and intellect is put into them as you just did now.
Gratefully,
Christy
The first time I ate catfish was in Fla 5 yrs ago and loved it, I’ve never seen it in my city maybe in bigger centers. Many farmers up here in Canada stock trout in their dugouts which is a term for machine-made ponds on every farm to catch water forcattle. we caught some once but never again, they tasted ‘muddy’ and no wonder.
My husband and I are big seafood lovers. Our doctor would like my husband and I to eat grilled fish 5 days a week. I had wondered why I never see any fish recipes from you. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. Looking forward to the Hushpuppies recipe.
Where is your brother’s restaurant Hickory Barn Barbeque located?
Looking forward to your new Cookbook. I will be buying several for Christmas gifts.
Christy, you just brought back sooo many memories of our Family reunions on my Uncle Herb’s cabin . He enjoyed fishing in the White river and we had the best fried catfish! He fried his fish in a black deep kettle on top of the stove, had to have bread and milk with our fish, my mama said the same thing about the fish bones. For dessert, I was always the one child who had to sit on top the old crank ice cream maker and crank it until it became too hard for me! Good times! I just ordered your book, can’t wait to receive it. Love your site! Thanks for all your information you share, it’s lovely.
Nothing better than Catfish, Hushpuppies or cornbread, slaw and pickled onions. Being blessed to live within a 30 minute drive of two of the best restaurants in Alabama for catfish, I don’t fix it at home a lot but reading this makes me want to hit the road to Riverside!!
You have obviously done some research on this topic. However, there is usually two sides to every story. Alton Brown of Good Eats on the Food Network did an entire show on Farm-raised Catfish that aired last year. There is also a lot of information on Farm-raised Catfish on http://www.uscatfish.com/index.html Catfish is apparently one of the world’s top renewable food resources. This website is run by The Catfish Institute (so I’m sure they are biased), but there is information on Health & Safety and Sustainable Farming practices if anyone is interested or still unsure whether they would like to try this recipe. Also, Alabama is one of the biggest producers of catfish and is known for the “clean” fresh taste of their catfish! Go Christy! (DH is from Mobile)
the above post was meant as a reply to Donald Dean.
PS. You can also watch the Catfish episode of Good Eats on YouTube, just do a search
I know I’m late to the show here, but I couldn’t resist. I grew up in Oklahoma and every summer we had fish fries nearly every weekend. We fished for our catfish in the lakes and rivers that are dotted all over Green Country (northeast Oklahoma). Mostly the Arkansas River and Keystone Lake. You’ve just never had better tasting fish; Blues, Spoonbills, Flatheads and Channel cats. We ate them all. We either fished or noodled for them, either way they tasted great. We always served them with fried potatoes, hushpuppies, cucumbers and onions in vinegar and cole slaw.
Thanks for the memories! I must get home this summer and enjoy a good fish fry! :O)
What a wonderful memory!! I hope you are able to make it home for a visit and are able to make even more memories!!
I was raised in the Florida Panhandle and to me there isn’t much better than Catfish. Granted, we got ours from the rivers that flow all over our area. The secret to a good fried catfish, like any other food, is how it’s seasoned and prepared. Like the someone else posted, fish should be fried.
Growing up, we always had fish fries complete with french fries, cheese grits, coleslaw (or salad) and hush puppies. To me, catfish tastes clean; mullet fish has a murky taste.
We have always used Hoover cornmeal (made in Bonifay, FL). It is, without a doubt, the best cornmeal ever. I live in WA state for now (military) and my Mama shipped me 2 bags of Hoover cornmeal recently. She did the same thing when we lived overseas. It makes the best cornbread fritters too.
http://www.williamsfamilyfarm.com/cornmeal&grits.htm
I want to add that the cost of the cornmeal at their link is a lot more than what we pay for in the store (Piggly Wiggly).
Just found this site and enjoying it so much. I grew up on the banks of Red River in Miller County, Arkansas and nothing is better than fried catfish in a cast iron skillet with french fries, hushpuppies, cole slaw and a big ole glass of ice tea. Now this is good food.
This is an add on to my earlier comment. I also was taught not to drink milk and eat fish and I would never drink the milk on Friday when we had fish in the school cafeteria.
http://clarksshoesuk.insanejournal.com/3753.html
My dad always fished anywhere he found water. In Michigan, where my mom lived, he fished for and brought her cat fish to cook. She looked at him in horror and said she’d never cook or eat them. She told him they were bottom cats and tasted like mud.
My son fishes in Otay Lake here in Southern California and brings home 5-7 lb bass. I just love them; they taste like fresh water. Any time any one asks him where he cought them, he just looks at them and points out to the lake and says “over there”. He never gives up his favorite spots….