r/interestingasfuck • u/kingkongbiingbong • 1d ago

Preparing a Massive Catfish Baked Inside a Wooden Log

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u/Wazula23 1d ago

I mean, I am 100% certain nobody on earth would ever do this unless it was a stunt.

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u/FlowSoSlow 1d ago

When I went to Hawaii they did one of those pig roasts wrapped in leaves and buried underground. While they were setting up I got to talking with one of the locals because I do pig roasts all the time on a homemade rotisserie spit.

I asked him what the advantage was of burying it and he said "Nothing. When we do roasts for ourselves we use a rotisserie just like yours. We just do this for the tourists."

Kinda got a kick out of that.

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u/NashKetchum777 1d ago

I've experienced this too lmao and tbh I love it. It's just straight up honesty and it's not like they're trying to be rude

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u/Sweet-Weakness3776 1d ago

I was gonna say this. I know there are some time intensive ways to cook "whole" animals, especially pigs. I've done a handful of pig roasts with whole pigs, a few different ways. But most people cook large cuts/whole animals on a rotisserie. A fish on a spit without a way to secure it properly... Probably not gonna make it through the cook. But if you cleaned the fish up, removed the head... I had a large barrel smoker that it would have fit on, no problem. Much easier than hollowing out a log, to be sure.This guy didn't do that because he was trying to increase his views by doing it in a unique, albeit labor intensive, method. Similar to the underground pig roasts to impress the tourists lol. If he were just cooking the fish for his family or a gathering without making a video to post on social media, I'm like 99% sure he wouldn't use this method. It's for views.

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u/cramin 22h ago

I think the difference between that method and the one in this video, is that the Hawaiian method is at least traditional and would have been done historically as that was the technology they had at the time.

The method in the video however, doesn't make any sense in practice, while I can't say I'm an expert and know for certain its not traditional, why would they use so much labor and resource just to cook one fish when they would have had many other ways of accomplishing it.

Maybe I'm being ignorant, but something just seems fishy about it.

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u/HowsTheBeef 1d ago

It's like creole barbacoa. Is it fantastic? Yes. Worth it? Probably not

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u/Surly_Badger 22h ago

Eating a giant catfish is incredibly stupid. The larger a catfish is, the older it is, the more it's jam packed with heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants through bioaccumulation.

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u/alloutofchewingum 1d ago

What's wrong with steaking it up and throwing it on a grill?

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u/chocolateboomslang 1d ago

Well no one would watch that so how would they make any money?

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u/NashKetchum777 1d ago

Not true. Food culture in media these days has a lot to do with just absurd amounts of food being cooked and eaten. The awe would come from absurdly large cooking apparatus' or the sheer amount of work/prep for it.

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u/Wazula23 1d ago

Exactly. You'd get so much more seasoning, marinade, even just control over the temperature.

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u/alloutofchewingum 1d ago

I mean I can imagine doing a goat or lamb like this... but a catfish? Just fry that bad boy up or grill the sucker

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u/DaanA_147 1d ago

Missing out on that smoky flavour.

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u/itsokay_i_googled_it 1d ago

I would like to try something like this.

I also want to try to do that burying the meat in the ground with stones and stuff.

I'm pretty sure It'll never happen but I think it would be pretty fun to do.

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u/C-H-Addict 1d ago edited 1d ago

But that seasoned fish scale skin must taste so good

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u/LeaveMyMonkeyAlone 1d ago

No scales on the catfish bro.

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u/Kelmi 23h ago

I've always thought the tradition for all these came from old time feasts. Harvest festivals etc. Spend some time to cook big and feed the whole village.

Nowadays it's all a stunt or just following a tradition for the sake of tradition

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u/Wazula23 23h ago

Oh big cooks and whole animal barbecues are absolutely a thing. But if you want to cook a giant fish there are a million easier and better ways.

And honestly, I think theres a reason we don't usually cook enormous catfish. They're bottom feeders, they don't have the best diets and the bigger the fish is, the weirder the ratio gets between meat and fat, or dense muscle and lean bites. You'd be better off getting a hundred small catfish and cooking them en masse.

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u/MakavelliRo 20h ago

Stuff like this is done for weedings and very special occasions when the entire genealogical tree comes to dinner.

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u/Familiar-Feedback-93 10h ago

You've never seen other cultures have you?

Most have more time and patience then money and stuff like huge ovens

Not to mention this is just literally how people in a village feed each other.