Smoked Fried Catfish

[gary s]

There use to be a BBQ place over in Longview that served BBQ catfish, it was great, I don't know why after all these years I just thought of it. I asked how he did it and he showed me, He took whole catfish, soaked it in milk and hot sauce (Tabasco) then breaded them in corn meal a little flour salt and pepper, fried them up crisp and put them on the smoker for a couple hours. Fantastic

Gary S

 

[chef jimmyj]

That sounds good. I did some work for a water treatment plant north of Abilene. The guys there caught 2 35lb Catfish out of a lake on the property. I wonder how much Milk it takes to soak 2- 2 1/2 foot Catfish? 

...JJ

 

[Bearcarver]

 
There use to be a BBQ place over in Longview that served BBQ catfish, it was great, I don't know why after all these years I just thought of it. I asked how he did it and he showed me, He took whole catfish, soaked it in milk and hot sauce (Tabasco) then breaded them in corn meal a little flour salt and pepper, fried them up crisp and put them on the smoker for a couple hours. Fantastic

Gary S

Pretty much how my Mother used to make catties, except for the smoke.

Catfish was always my favorite eating fish, and we ate a lot of them every Spring & early Summer.

Bear

 
That sounds good. I did some work for a water treatment plant north of Abilene. The guys there caught 2 35lb Catfish out of a lake on the property. I wonder how much Milk it takes to soak 2- 2 1/2 foot Catfish? 

...JJ

I don't know about Catfish in other places, but the ones around SE PA are best eaten between 12" and 18" long. The bigger ones are usually too fatty & oily.

Bear

 

[gary s]

Same around here, I personally like about 10 to 12 inches. We do fried catfish quite a bit, but next time I;ll have to fire up the smoker.  My wife was raised in Southern Arkansas and grew up eating catfish. Her daddy and brother would put out nets and lines and sell dressed catfish to all the local stores. It's been a while but my wife could clean and skin a catfish faster than most guys.

Gary S

 

[Bearcarver]

 
Same around here, I personally like about 10 to 12 inches. We do fried catfish quite a bit, but next time I;ll have to fire up the smoker.  My wife was raised in Southern Arkansas and grew up eating catfish. Her daddy and brother would put out nets and lines and sell dressed catfish to all the local stores. It's been a while but my wife could clean and skin a catfish faster than most guys.

Gary S

LOL----I used to go for catties at night a lot with my Dad, with lanterns. We often brought over 50 home from the Delaware River. Right after catching each one, we'd re-bait & throw out. Then he'd hold the catfish with his hand in it's mouth, cut around behind the gills, and pull the skin off with a pliers. Then he'd throw them in a 5 gal bucket of water, and they'd swim around without their skin all night until we got home. Then gut them & cut the heads off. Catties were the only fish we never filleted, because after you fried them, you could fork the meat off both sides in two pieces, leaving the backbone & rib cage all in one piece. No other bones in a Catfish.

Bear

 

[hickorybutt]

There is a place here in Cincy called SmoQ that has smoked fried chicken.  I've always assumed that they smoked the chicken for a while to start, and then finished it off in the deep fryer.  Or maybe they do the same method as you mentioned for catfish above, deep-frying it first and then finishing in the smoker.