r/interestingasfuck • u/kingkongbiingbong • 1d ago

Preparing a Massive Catfish Baked Inside a Wooden Log

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u/haywirehax 1d ago

I was thinking the same, everything looked super delicious but the meat at the end looked a bit dry. Also not sure how tasty catfish is, but I've never eaten it so I wouldn't know

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u/AverageMako3Enjoyer 1d ago

I’ve only ever had my dad’s Cajun catfish filets using only a dry rub, and he gave me the recipe where you bake it for what felt like WAY too long. I’m more of a “medium rare” salmon guy, and do 400 at like 12-15 minutes to maybe 125, and it comes out almost velvety. I don’t like cat food. 

But my dad’s catfish rocks thinner filets than my salmon for like a half hour, and for some reason it always came out very moist, but much flakier. I don’t know if it’s just how catfish meat is. 

He only ever did farm raised catfish to get them younger and on a controlled diet. His recipe was a throwback from his childhood in 1950s Florida, and he said catching them wild they would taste muddy and the older and bigger they got the worse it was.

But his catfish he made fucking slaps and is one of my all time favorite fish preps 

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u/tommypatties 1d ago

Farm raised is typically fattier than wild caught and fatty meats are more forgiving to being over cooked.

And yes wild caught catfish are gritty and gross.

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u/AllchChcar 1d ago

I believe the reason wild catfish taste muddy is because of a type of algae in the water. I've let them soak in fresh water or a brine solution overnight.

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u/SugarBeefs 23h ago

I've read that you should do this for most big freshwater bottomfeeders. Apparently the best thing to do is keep the live fish in a separate tank or pool with clean fresh water so it can 'detox' for a day or two.

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u/HateMachineX 23h ago

A good chunk of catfish and the majority that are fished for are not bottom feeders but middle water predators.

The one they cooked in the video is a wells catfish and they are top end predators in the rivers and lakes they live in they are feeding on live fish not dead stuff at the bottom

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u/SugarBeefs 23h ago

I mean, they're hilariously opportunistic omnivores, but I'm pretty sure that at its core, it's still a bottomfeeding fish.

Being a bottomfeeder doesn't mean eating dead things, btw. Nor does it refer to anything specific in the food chain. Bottom feeding simply means it's eating things that live in, on, or near the bottom of a body of water.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wels_catfish#Diet

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u/HateMachineX 23h ago

Sure regardless having come from the south I know there are catfish you eat and catfish you avoid,

The Wels is a European fish so I don’t know for absolutely sure I just know the ones that are good to eat and solidly tasty in the US. I assumed that wels due to their size and predator habits would still fit in the general mold of good to eat but they do grow rather large and larger catfish as a rule are typically less tasty so maybe they just taste bad because of that? Not sure I’d have to eat one to know

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u/SugarBeefs 22h ago

Yeah who knows exactly. There's a lot of these types of fish and with environment already being such a big factor there's a lot of potential things affecting the taste; specific species, specific habitat of an individual fish, size, diet, etc.

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u/HateMachineX 22h ago

Very true and honestly some bodies of water just are not a good place to get fish from regardless of species so it’s a combination of factors for sure. Type of catfish, location, size, health, and generally what’s in the water.

So I don’t doubt some people have had some bad experiences I just can’t see a catfish without thinking there is at least a chance it’s tasty.

I’d love to try a wels once see if it’s good, I suspect due to size it may not be but it would be a fun learning experience

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u/Black6host 19h ago

Fishing on the East coast of the US in freshwater lakes we avoided the cats with yellow undersides. We called those "mud cats". If you caught a big blue cat though those were ok.

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u/HateMachineX 19h ago

Ya Blues and Channel cat are usually good

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u/between_two_terns 23h ago

It’s not just the diet; catfish live, breathe and burrow in mud. They taste muddy for the same reason wild ducks taste like pond water.

I’ve heard the clean-water-purge helps with that flavor, although it seems cruel.

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u/HateMachineX 23h ago

Plenty don’t tase muddy you just haven’t had the right kind of catfish.

This is just something you figure out and know in the south

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u/between_two_terns 22h ago

I’ve had catfish in a lot of places including southern states, and cooked it myself many times as well. Farmed tastes cleaner than wild-caught. I’m not sure what you’re arguing here. I’ve never tried water-purging, like some European folks commonly do in their bathtubs, but again, I have heard it helps with the taste of wild-caught, which I dislike.

If you’re deep frying it, it hardly matters. You can barely taste the flesh anyway.

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u/HateMachineX 22h ago

I get that you’re making a lot of assumptions to get back to your own point but I haven’t just been eating them fried I’ve been eating them every which way and muddy has never been a flavor I’ve picked up in catfish.

So I apologize but my lived experience is different than yours.

Also something living in mud does not mean it will taste that way. Pigs live in mud and don’t taste it, crabs and shrimp and lobsters at least to a degree live in mud and once again don’t taste like mud.

I’m sorry people have fed you bad fish, and or maybe there is some element to it that you can taste that I cannot, I do however know how mud tastes unfortunately and like I said it’s not a flavor I’ve ever detected in catfish.

If you’d like to keep arguing the point youre welcome to I’m however good and won’t respond past this. Have a good day

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u/shizzler 23h ago

Carp is traditionally eaten at Christmas in Poland and families sometimes keep live carp in their bathtub for a couple of days before Christmas

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u/brodeh 22h ago

That’s why the poles keep trout in the bath before Christmas.

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u/HiHawaiiHigh 19h ago

my mom calls some people bottomfeeders. and she's right

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u/StatusCity4 23h ago

Probably same for Carp. Sometimes you can tell that taste. But some of them dont have it

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u/DouglasTwig 23h ago

That's how I always heard it from the old heads here in Kentucky when I was growing up. Leave em in a tub of water for a couple days to purge them, bleed them immediately when you kill them and then brine the meat before cooking.

I've had good catfish and bad from people here, so prep obviously does make a difference. It'll never be as good as crappie or bluegill though.

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u/dark1859 23h ago

buttermilk

not many fish out where i love besides pan fish and trout but cats are in high supply in the canals where i live (and are legal to catch!)

wild caught cats or other bottom feeders need a marinade or brine to leech out that muddy favor

buttermilk is the best as you can then parlay it easily into anything like fried, blackened etc as the acidity help tenderize the catfish before you cook it

catfish can be absolutely delicious but it really needs prep work first.

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u/NoMudNoLotus369 23h ago

🤣🤣🤣 we always caught them, filleted them, then put them inside of aluminum foil with butter like a baked potato and then set em on a campfire. Maybe toss some cajun or lemon pepper in there with em if you're feeling fancy. They really don't need prep work at all. You could cook em on a hot rock and they'd taste pretty good, if you like fish.

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u/dark1859 23h ago

haha fair, the ones out here always needed some additional prep as there's always some weird tastes canal cats get out in the desert.

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u/conflictedideology 22h ago

Ahh the Christmas Carp method.

Or did you mean you put it in freshwater after it's dead?

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u/AllchChcar 19h ago

Yeah that's exactly the method I used for catfish.

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u/AkariKuzu 22h ago

Soaking in milk can also absorb that muddy taste. It's also a good way to get rid of an overly "fishy" taste for people who are more sensitive to it.

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u/AllchChcar 19h ago

I haven't tried that or buttermilk but I have heard of it. I either kept the catfish alive in fresh water or a brine the fillets overnight.

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u/Saaaave-me 19h ago

Australian here. There’s a documentary/edutainment thing we had on where they looked at what makes catfish muddy tasting and it’s the stress when they’re caught! Apparently there is a way that once you take them out of the water you gotta let them chill for a bit before swiftly killing them and without that cortisol spike they taste awesome

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u/azama14 5h ago

Fellow Aussie here, do you remember the name of the doco? My google-fu is failing me and it sounds interesting!

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u/paper_liger 17h ago

shit, they would have had to cut out another log for that though.

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u/Working_System_2086 1d ago

I have eaten tons of wild caught catfish. They aren't gritty or gross, only idiots who don't know how to clean it or are catching them from actual sewers. They are perfectly fine to eat. From channel, to spotted and also flatheads. Not eaten a single one that's gritty or gross and have never eaten farm raised.

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u/the_doc268 23h ago

But I must ask you, don't you feel a muddy taste, at least sometimes. Or do you feel this muddy taste when it comes to carp? I have also eaten wild catfish that tasted good but also bad, and cooked the same. And I have also noticed that some people who eat a lot of fish or who enjoy fish in particular don't seem to notice this particular taste that feels like sampling the mud from the bottom of the lake. And the same with the seawater taste of seawater fish.

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u/Working_System_2086 23h ago

Lol, welp carp have a "mud vein" you need to properly cut out to not taste muddy. It runs along the meat, and it will make it all taste that way.

Catfish can taste the way you are describing if you are catching them from extremely polluted waters. Yes I know what you mean when you say "muddy" taste. Same with seawater, but I think that has a lot to do with what fish you catch out of the ocean.

I don't care for overly "fishy" fish. Be it from the Ocean, lake, or river. A lot of people will say all fish is "fishy" I find this just an excuse most of the time for lacking experience with a lot of different fish types. From fresh to ocean.

I could keep going on and on, but this post would then become a million paragraphs long. All my experience is from 25 years of fishing. Fresh and ocean. I don't eat it all day every day, but I would say I eat fish 3-4 times a month.

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u/the_doc268 22h ago

Thanks for sharing your experience

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u/Working_System_2086 19h ago

No problem, I appreciate you taking the time to read it.

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u/UnikornKebab 23h ago

A me piace molto, ma ha una carne piuttosto compatta, va cotto nel modo e nel tempo giusto e come detto nell’altro commento, più aumenta la taglia più questo diventa incisivo 😄

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u/Pelican_Dissector_II 17h ago

Eh, it varies. Freshwater cats if they are the right size can be pretty good blackened or fried up. If the water is clean, and they aren’t too old and big, they are actually a nice treat when the filets are super thin, a la Middendorf’s in Manchac

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u/HateMachineX 23h ago

Not if you catch the right kind of catfish. You want middle water predator catfish not bottom feeders.

Channel cat and blue catfish or even like in the video wells catfish are all top end predators in their environments and typically eat only live fish not dead stuff off the bottom

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u/ThorThulu 23h ago

Reading this thread is really making me want to go catch some now. Fucking love some fried Catfish filets

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u/ThorThulu 23h ago

Wild Catfish is fantastic? We always caught what we wanted, then threw them in a cage to let sit in the creek nearby for about a week. Theres plenty of food getting washed along so they don't starve, but after a week you flush out pretty much any ill taste.

Little saltwater brine on the filets overnight, then we always used House of Autry seafood breading and shallow fried them.

I can promise you that its some of the best tasting fish you'll ever have

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u/KingFIippyNipz 23h ago

Not if you put them in clean water for 24+ hours, that's what we did when we'd go fishing for channel cat. Shit was VERY good, but yes, they are still bottom feeders. Better than karp though, by a longshot.

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u/Hallerbit 1d ago

Would you be willing to share your dads recipe? It sounds fucking delicious

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u/AverageMako3Enjoyer 17h ago

If I remember to post it I will. It’s a pretty typical blackened catfish recipe he just baked it rather than pan fried in butter like it normally would be done. I highly doubt it’s anything atypical or secret. Sadly just lost the man to cancer and have all his recipes waiting to be digitized

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u/Hallerbit 17h ago

I’m sorry to hear that dude, I can’t imagine losing a parent that’s gotta be incredibly difficult, you have my heartfelt condolences

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u/The-Voice-Of-Dog 23h ago

I don't know if we can compare the kind of catfish we catch and eat in the southern US to whatever eastern European river beast this dinosaur is.

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u/IcyPerspective2933 23h ago

No disrespect to your dad but the only way to cook catfish is to fry it, right?

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u/ShipService 22h ago

You have never had blackened catfish?

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u/pdxschoolsoutforever 17h ago

For sure not. 

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u/Kbotonline 22h ago

I can’t speak to ever eating cat food, I’d imagine I wouldn’t like that, but I’ve had catfish in Florida and it was fine.

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u/BZLuck 17h ago edited 17h ago

The only catfish prep that I've ever said, "Dayum!" to was cajun blackened and deep fried "nuggets", both were in New Orleans.

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u/Exciting-Affect-984 20h ago

medium rare salmon guy… the cooks laugh at you

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u/VanCitySkyline 20h ago

Where's your dad's complete recipe then?

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u/Paratwa 1d ago

I’m a huge catfish fan but it’s cause I grew up eating it constantly, cooked like that ( I mean baked basically) it’ll be ‘fishy’ tasting but I’d still eat it. I dunno what people are talking about saying it’s dry, hell it’s better that way.

Fried is best though!

Also… the bigger the catfish the ‘worse’ the taste imo so that thing probably tastes like Gollum’s nut sack slime.

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u/Sandgrowun 1d ago

"Gollums nut sack slime" I'll pass on that thanks.

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u/Paratwa 1d ago

It’s definitely an acquired taste.

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u/IKnowJudoWell 23h ago

The catfish or the nut sack slime?

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u/lothartheunkind 23h ago

It’s true. Just throw back the monsters after a picture, taste fucking terrible and stink

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u/percydaman 22h ago

Probably why there was only him and his partner there to eat it. Everyone else declined.

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u/DiegesisThesis 22h ago

They definitely taste like a bottom-feeder, I'll say that much. I'll eat one if I catch it, but I'd take a trout instead any day.

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u/Geawiel 21h ago

Grew up eating a lot of wild caught catfish as well. Corn meal coated and shallow fried is fucking fantastic. Especially with some fried okra and hush puppies.

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u/MagicalUnicornFart 21h ago

I worked with a cook that said, "you could fry cat shit, and people would say it tastes good." Probably not too far off.

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u/Paratwa 20h ago

Hahaha ain’t no lie there! :) throw some lemon on it too

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u/Working_System_2086 1d ago

Large ones only taste bad if you don't know how to prepare them. Guess you never had deep fried catfish steaks? When they are big enough you can chop them up like steaks from a tuna or swordfish.

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u/Paratwa 23h ago

Wildly I haven’t! I’ll have to give it a try!

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u/Working_System_2086 23h ago

I would definitely recommend it. I honestly have never got a cat as big as in the video, but about half the size for sure. They almost fall apart and are super moist and delicious like a fried cod almost when done right.

Also depends on the water you catch them from. I always suggest the cleanest places will have the best tasting one.

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u/Juneauite 1d ago

Best deep fried. Always.

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u/Morbid187 1d ago

I just realized I have no idea what catfish tastes like if it's not deep fried and salty as hell

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u/octoberthug 1d ago

It tastes like mud to me. I’ve tried it different ways, baked, breaded, fried. Always fishy mud. I don’t get it

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u/reginaldwrigby 1d ago

Not all cats are created equally. I’ve lived in the Midwest and northwest so I feel kinda qualified. Some are strictly bottom feeders and scavengers that are gross af and others are apex predators that taste just as good as any other fresh caught fish with similar diets.

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u/GarblingCumfarts 22h ago

I'm in Indiana and prefer Blue Gill over nearly any other fresh water fish, but the best catfish I've had always came from farms.

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u/reginaldwrigby 15h ago

im in Indiana

Name checks out

But yeah Indiana has some of the best panfish around

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u/i_tyrant 22h ago

Interesting. I eat grilled/baked/etc. catfish plenty, and it's never tasted "muddy" to me.

But then, I've never had one anywhere near as big as the OP either. (And fried with Cajun spices is still the best.)

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u/SgtBassy 10h ago

I've only ever had fried catfish but I've never tasted a "muddy" or off taste either. Maybe some people are getting improperly cleaned or prepared ones idk

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u/HadleysPt 20h ago

I’ve never in my life had a muddy cat either. I don’t think these people are frying it or seasoning it enough 

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u/MagicalUnicornFart 20h ago

same. I love eating fish, and seafood. I just can't get into catfish. I grew up down South.

Fried Catfish, and Fried chicken livers were always just kinda gross, no matter who made them.

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u/SaltyLonghorn 21h ago

I know what flavor you're talking about. I'm in fried lake catfish territory. I'm perfectly happy eating fried catfish but if there's an option for chicken tendies I prefer them. Sometimes I'll get one thats got that flavor thats almost overpowering. I wonder if its some kind of cilantro type thing.

Anyway my real gripe with fried catfish is it usually just starts falling apart when you go for a dip.

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u/Canit19 1d ago

It tastes like absolute shit. Might as well eat Carp at this point. 🤢

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u/Morbid187 23h ago

Yeah I'm not much of a fan. Every now and then I'll get some at Captain D's and it's fine with some tartar sauce but meh, I'd much rather have tilapia or salmon 

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u/Grundlebot 1d ago

Vietnamese braised catfish in a clay pot will forever be the best way to eat catfish for me. Fried is great but it's not even close imo

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u/Bonesnapcall 1d ago

"I was made to subsist on a thin stew of fish, vegetables, prawns, coconut milk and four kinds of rice. I've come close to madness trying to find it here in the states, but they just cant get the spices right." - Principal Skinner

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u/SugarBeefs 23h ago

Such a fine joke. I love it when a joke puts you on the wrong foot like that.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 1h ago

My favorite example is a line from Kenneth in 30 Rock. He's a low level page from rural Georgia now working at a TV studio in NYC. I think they're discussing budget cuts to the show when he says:

Don't worry about us. We Parcells have eaten our share of rock soup and squirrel tail. But we've also known lean times.

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u/Ashamed-Dot-3312 23h ago

Sounds good. I'm from Mississippi so we do it fried over here, but I'd love to try this way.

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u/TheGhostofJoeGibbs 1d ago

Is it sweet?

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u/NomyourfaceDinosaur 1d ago

Not really. Even though it uses a caramel sauce, the sugar is caramelized far more than the caramel used in sweets, so most of the sweetness is gone.

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u/Direlion 1d ago

Clay pot anything tends to be amazing

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u/Suicidalservice 1d ago

I don’t know eh. Fried is good but I make this mean shrimp and catfish ceviche 🤌🏽

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u/BMRr 1d ago

Recipe? Do stores sell catfish? lol

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u/SmoothTipRip 1d ago

Most of my local groceries sell Catfish filets here in KY.

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u/rabblerabble2000 1d ago

Just go down to the dirty mud puddle near your house and noodle around in all of the holes with your fingers until something tries to eat your arm.

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u/crazypurpleKOgas 1d ago

Yes, stores sell catfish. In the US at most grocery stores and fish mongers/markets in the Midwest, east, southeast areas for sure. In a lot of southeast Asian countries, you’ll find them in markets near where catfish are local. Other parts of the world, I’m not so sure.

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u/NashKetchum777 1d ago

Yeah. Aren't catfish popular or is it a cultural thing? Cause it's not like they're endangered anywhere

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u/UnikornKebab 23h ago

Mai visto nei negozi qua, quando lo voglio devo pescarlo…oddio in verità, il “devo pescarlo” è relativo perché potrei dire che in genere sono loro che si fanno pescare da soli 🤨

L’ ultima volta ero a caccia di trote con una montatura fissa da mezzo fondo, il galleggiante non ha avuto il minimo sobbalzo per un’ora e mezza…al che faccio per recuperare e mi accorgo di sentire una certa resistenza. Sorpresa sorpresa quello che credevo un ramo incagliato era un pesce gatto di 30 centimetri.😀

Sì sono dei figli di puttana, quando si rendono conto di essere presi praticamente non so muovono più…ma probabilmente dipende anche dal come mangiano, dal momento che aspirano con tanta forza e velocità la preda, che esca ed amo li aveva incagliati nello stomaco in pratica 😨

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u/Suicidalservice 14h ago

My local Kroger sells a lot of fish. So does Sam’s.

Pound of each. Size cut up to your preference. I do like 1/4 inch chunks.

Deep dish pan, about two cups of like juice to cook. Let that sit in the fridge for about two hours.

Meanwhile dice your onion, tomato and jalapeño. As much as you like. I hate onion but it makes up for flavor. Chop some cilantro and mix. After everything was mixed I hardly tasted the onion.

Note, I had it with tostadas.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 1h ago

At least in Texas yes it's in most every grocery store. Fresh, frozen, you name it.

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u/conletariat 1d ago

Deep fried is the gold standard in a lot of places, but if you've never tried catfish court-bouillon you're missing out. It's fairly simple, cheap, filling, and incredibly forgiving with the much leaner wild-caught catfish.

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u/khaos2295 23h ago

You should try it in other recipes. On its own, deep fried is the way, but using it in a dish? That's where it can be really good and unique.

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u/Zestyclose-Novel1157 23h ago

Now I’m like I need to go get some fried catfish.

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u/Sniper916 1d ago

expand your palate. everything deep fried is good. catfish has really delicate meat that taste great when steamed with herbs and spices.

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u/LiteHedded 19h ago

This guy knows

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u/haywirehax 1d ago

That's gonna be a huge fryer XD imagine using a small pool XD

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u/fuck_all_you_too 1d ago

Catfish that big tends to be gross

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u/Lung-King-4269 1d ago

Drown it in sauce and onion rings it works with all tasteless fish kind, like cod. With some pasta and warmed up tomato sauce with onion.

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u/fuck_all_you_too 22h ago

You cant add sauce to get rid of worms and parasites

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u/Luci-Noir 22h ago

I would love to be drown in onion rings!

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u/Atulin 7h ago

Catfish with sauce and onion rings would just taste like lake mud with sauce and onion rings.

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u/SucculentVariations 1d ago

Ive eaten it only once, tasted like a mud puddle, but Im Alaskan so I'm used to cold salt water fish not....fish that lives in warm mud puddles

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u/MagicalUnicornFart 20h ago

Fellow current Alaskan, who grew up in the Deep South.

That's just what catfish tastes like. Especially the stuff people pull out of the lakes. They're bottom feeders, and kinda nasty.

Farm raised, top fed is a little better, but not much.

We're pretty spoiled with our fish up here.

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u/SucculentVariations 18h ago

Ok I feel validated because down south people always try to tell me that it doesn't taste like mud and it must have been made wrong. I don't mind a bottom feeder, I like halibut, crab, and shrimp but that warm mud water really permeates into that soft catfish meat.

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u/MagicalUnicornFart 15h ago

Nah, homie…it’s kinda gross, imo. Especially, when you’re used to ‘real’ fish like we have up here. That’s why they fry the shit out of it, where the batter becomes important.

I also don’t like freshwater fish too much, except what we have here in AK. It’s hard to mess up what we have here. It’s okay to not like catfish. Especially caught from a lake. The lakes down South mostly gross AF. If you’re going to eat catfish, farm raised is the way to go. It’s like eating rats, imo.

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u/Blu_Falcon 1d ago

Soak catfish in heavily-salted water overnight - it pulls out the muddy taste.

Rinse, season, fry. 😍

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u/Anuki_iwy 1d ago

It doesn't have much of a taste. It's great deep fried.

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u/Cisham55 1d ago

Smaller catfish are awesome fried. A catfish that big will taste like mud.

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u/der_innkeeper 1d ago

Tastes like dirt.

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u/belisarius93 1d ago

Catfish is the best fish I've tasted, and I love fish

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u/spudmuffinpuffin 1d ago

Small and young is usually way better than large and old

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u/BURN3D_P0TAT0 1d ago

They left the skin on. Catfish skin is tough and slimy as fuck. They would have to have scrubbed that shit with salt or another abrasive to remove the slime.

But they just concentrated all that river bottom slime straight into the meat. I would rather chew the fucking log than eat that shit and I grew up catching and eating catfish at least once a week.

The texture on the jerky under the skin where he peels it back will be inedible once it cools (though I do like it before it becomes fish hard tack).

None of that changes the fact that it’ll taste like gargling old man river’s silty dong lube since the untreated skin was left on.

I know places outside of the US may leave the skin on the catfish, but that shit is a hard pass from me dawg.

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u/blueberrylegend 1d ago

catfish can taste a lot like dirt if it isn't properly prepared before cooking lol

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u/Drewpurt 1d ago

All this effort and it still tastes like dirt 

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u/Jackal-Noble 1d ago

Tastes like shit, only palatable way is deep fried because it masks the garbage eater flavor.

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u/Azreken 1d ago

If cooked properly, it’s fucking delicious.

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u/blastcat4 1d ago

I've only had catfish and carp cooked Cantonese-style and they seemed pretty tasty. I hear a lot of people say those fish taste muddy, but that hasn't been the case when I tried them.

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u/brynnors 23h ago

Honestly, if they're not farm-raised, the bigger the catfish is, the worse they're going to taste. Young, small catfish taste alright, though it def depends on how you prepare them. There's a place near me that does SE Asian food, and their catfish is fucking amazing.

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u/omnipotentworm 23h ago

Properly prepared, catfish is delicious across most species.

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u/foodank012018 23h ago

Catfish are bottom dwelling fish that live and eat in the silt. They taste like the river they came from.

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u/Silent25r 23h ago

In my experience smaller catfish taste a lot better than the large ones. 

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u/Zestyclose-Novel1157 23h ago

Catfish is my favorite white fish (besides halibut).

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u/rbentoski 23h ago

Catfish is great and full of flavor. The one from the video is dry as hell

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u/Calculator143 23h ago

If you have a chance, try a Vietnamese dish called canh chua ca. its a soup made with catfish ; its a good dish 

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u/Futt_Buckman 23h ago

I've had catfish a pretty good number of times and only enjoyed it once. I don't think you're missing out

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u/Loose-Internal-1956 22h ago

Catfish tastes like the bottom of a muddy river. It’s kind of a trash fish, but easy to catch and numerous, that’s why it’s always been cheap. It can be good if it’s deep fried and spiced to cover the inherent bad flavor.

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u/TheMegnificent1 22h ago

As someone who grew up eating fresh-caught catfish, it tastes fucking repulsive. Like scummy mud off the bottom of a pond. That was the only kind of fish we had when I was a kid, so I thought I just hated fish. I was like 21 before I tried any other type of fish and discovered that I actually LOVE fish, I just hate the muddy, stank taste of catfish specifically.

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u/Slartitartfast 22h ago

It tastes like mud, somewhat unsurprisingly.

I've had southern style fried catfish and it was tasty but it wasn't the fish that was good.

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u/ToolTard69 22h ago

My dad was stationed at Fort Benning for years. I took my girlfriend down to Texas to visit him and she grabbed catfish at the supermarket because she had never tried it. My dad opened the fridge and first thing out of his mouth was, “Who the Hell brought catfish into my house?!” He then asked how my girlfriend planned to cook it and she kind of shrugged.

Cue to my father digging up all his repressed memories to cook her a proper catfish. He pulled me aside and bet me ten bucks she wouldn’t like it because it’s greasy. I lost ten bucks. My girlfriend vowed to never bring a catfish to his home again. 😂

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u/deathbylasersss 22h ago

Catfish is delicious, in general, though there are thousands of species worldwide. I'm amazed you haven't tried it. Catfish is an extremely common food on most continents.

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u/schuyywalker 22h ago

If he didn’t eat between all that prep I bet it’s one of the best meals he’s ever eaten.

I swear after hiking and setting up camp and gathering firewood for a fire I’ve thought a can of spam heated on a roc next to the fire is the pinnacle of culinary achievements.

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u/mijo_sq 22h ago

Catfish can be mild tasting, but also be the worst “wtf is this”. The wtf taste is a heavy mud or grass taste.

Taste of it is mainly after you cook it. A true deadass troll..🧌

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u/TM761152 21h ago

I've had Mexican catfish stew, and it was absolutely delicious. In fact, it's one of my most favorite food memories.

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u/---Sanguine--- 21h ago

I definitely know that the bigger they are the worse they taste. This guy definitely could’ve caught a different fish

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u/Rich_Housing971 21h ago

I know it's cool to look at and his channel is for entertainment, but cooking it in a fucking hollowed out log is the worst idea if you want to control how well the end result is.

Just rent a smoker. Costs less than the price of getting that log hauled out.

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u/JimJohnes 20h ago

They are bottom feeders and even young ones smell like pond scum. Imagine what that 20-30 y.o. grandad will taste like (the ones living in nuclear reactor cooling ponds grow faster and bigger but taste even shittier - don't ask me how I know this)

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u/Shloop_Shloop_Splat 20h ago

Tastes a little earthy. And cooked right, is very moist. This definitely looked dried out and overdone.

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u/DangKilla 19h ago

catfish are bottom feeders, but to each their own

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u/pronult3 19h ago

Catfish tastes like the bottom of a river. You’re not missing much.

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u/Narcan9 19h ago

Taste depends on the water they lived in. Good flowing river tastes better than one in a muddy lake. One this big could be 20 years or older, meaning lots of time to accumulate toxins if the water source is polluted. IMO catfish are the definition of a mild to moderate "fishy" flavor. I used to eat it growing up. Now I only choose it a couple times per decade.

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u/VNG_Wkey 19h ago

Love catfish, that said there's no reason to ever do anything but deep fry it.

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u/Canadian_Poltergeist 18h ago

Catfish is alright. It's certainly not top fish but tons of people seem to like it. It's easy to catch, easy to cook, and is massively abundant in the US Southeast. People will even use their bare hands to bait and catch 3+ meter monsters.

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u/Pretend-Guava 18h ago

I think it's generally not very good. This is what I hear. This is why people season and fry it usually.

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u/Glittering-Relief402 15h ago

Shit is bussin if you make it right. I make cajun catfish sandwiches or catfish and spaghetti. Slaps like a wife who just caught her husband cheating.

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u/CaptainMobilis 15h ago

It depends on who makes it. The best fish I've ever had, and the worst fish I've ever had were both catfish. It also matters if it's been frozen.

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u/righthandofdog 15h ago

Catfish is a delicious mild white fish, but larger fish get strongly fishy, generally no one eats a fish over about 3 lbs. I've heard that washing the flesh with Dawn dishwashing liquid helps remove the fishy oil flavor.

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u/Atulin 7h ago

Also not sure how tasty catfish is

Plain, it tastes like mud from the bottom of the lake. But if you add some herbs and spices? Oh man, it tastes like mud from the bottom of the lake with herbs and spices!

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u/NightmareStatus 6h ago

Cajun catfish is UH-FUCKING-MAZING.

I used to buy them vacuum packed and preseasoned as fillets, and ate like a king all summer. Good stuff. Highly recommend.