How to remove the fish taste out of catfish?

I am also a buttermilk soaker. Works great for venison as well (my wife won't eat "gamey").

Frying is the way to go, blackened as dodger mentioned also a great way for great taste and masking any off flavors.

I haven't tried it with catfish, but zesty Italian is a great marinade for quail, amberjack, grouper, tilapia. I am guessing it would work well for cats as well. Soak in straight-up bottle of zesty Italian dressing for several hours (3-4) and grill.
 
I have nothing important to add other than I love catfish. Do you like spicy flavors? Catfish works well with pepper flakes, salt, oil, and paprika. If you use enough marinade you can cover the fish taste.
 
Usually soak catfish in whole milk for a few hours or overnight before cooking it. Helps out a lot. I've never been ambitious enough to keep buttermilk in stock for the purpose, it's pretty rare that I actually eat fish anyway so plain milk seems work well enough.
 
Blacken them with a good rub and soak um in Beer, Dark Beer, cook um in Beer and when your eating um, drink a beer...
 
These fish were not worth saving. I did not get fillets, just bits and pieces of fish that he trimmed up. It was horrible. No flaky white meat, just "Stems and seeds ". I will not be buying anymore from him.
 
Save your milk, beer, and other soaks for drinking, just put the fillets in ice place em in the fridge or on the counter, pass by every so often and drain off the water and put on some more ice. When the water runs clears their clean, goes for venison, fish, anything wild. Works every time and I've have found it cuts the gaminess better than milk, beer, etc, as the ice literally leaches out the blood, mud, hormones, etc.
 
My Dad always soaked out gar and drum meat in ginger ale. Now those are even lower on the food scale, but they taste gooooood!
 
dipbait said:
These fish were not worth saving. I did not get fillets, just bits and pieces of fish that he trimmed up. It was horrible. No flaky white meat, just "Stems and seeds ". I will not be buying anymore from him.
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Bummer. Half the battle in buying good river raised catfish is buying from a knowledgable fisherman. I may have mentioned before that my local source puts his fish live in a spring-fed small pond for days before seining them for processing. I've been many times to his processing building, a 20x40 block building with climate control and modern cooling, processing and freezing facilities. I've watched him work up my order of fish, doing 35# of perfect fillets or steaks in about ten minutes with little waste using an electric fillet knife. Sorry for your bad experience. Maybe refer him to an animal shelter as a source for cheap cat food.
 
My dad taught me the best way to do it, take a glass dish, slice up a bunch of onion. Place a layer of onion down first, salt and pepper fish on each side, place on top of onion, repeat the layer finish with onion on top. Let it set overnight. He used it on all fish including cats, carp, sturgeon etc.....
 
If you don't like the fish taste you can eat a salad.

Joke.

You can kill the fish taste by soaking the fish in beer overnight.
 
NightMare Silverado said:
Catfish is one of my favorite fish. I never freeze it, kill and clean it as soon as it leaves the water. I throw it in an ice bath untill I get home them throw it in milk for a few hours. Pam fry or cook it on the grill with salt&red pepper flake.
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Yes, my understanding is that Catfish needs to be eaten within about 24 hours of killing it or the flavor changes dramatically.

I used to eat it fried at one of Wolfgang Puck's restaurants in Los Angeles (Chinois), it was delicious.
 
All good tips, especially the soaking to remove a muddy taste. But to remove that fishy taste it comes down to taking the time to clean them properly. Skin and gut your catfish, then prior to cutting the fillet away from the bone, on the outside of the fillet take a very sharp fillet knife and gently go along and remove all of the silvery and red colored meat. There is a thin layer of this over the entire fillet (thickness is determined by the size of the fish). Once this is done cut the fillet away from spine, remove rib cage and remove any red meat which runs length ways down the middle of the fillet. This is a lot of extra work and may be impractical on very small fish, but on those 2-3 lbs and up it makes all the difference if you don't want the fishy taste.

Then soak in whatever method you prefer, dredge in cajun seasoned cornmeal and fry til crispy. serve with hush puppies, french fries, coleslaw and beer. Dats how we eat em down here in Louisiana.

Got a dozen caught this morning soaking in water in the fridge for tomorrow's fish fry.

Catfish copy.jpg
 
SouthernComfort said:
All good tips, especially the soaking to remove a muddy taste. But to remove that fishy taste it comes down to taking the time to clean them properly. Skin and gut your catfish, then prior to cutting the fillet away from the bone, on the outside of the fillet take a very sharp fillet knife and gently go along and remove all of the silvery and red colored meat. There is a thin layer of this over the entire fillet (thickness is determined by the size of the fish). Once this is done cut the fillet away from spine, remove rib cage and remove any red meat which runs length ways down the middle of the fillet. This is a lot of extra work and may be impractical on very small fish, but on those 2-3 lbs and up it makes all the difference if you don't want the fishy taste.

Then soak in whatever method you prefer, dredge in cajun seasoned cornmeal and fry til crispy. serve with hush puppies, french fries, coleslaw and beer. Dats how we eat em down here in Louisiana.

Got a dozen caught this morning soaking in water in the fridge for tomorrow's fish fry.

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Yep, buttermilk works as long as you get that red meat off. We cut them up for nuggets if they are small. Otherwise we fillet them. Good eatin!
 
Sorry the catfish didn't work out.

Here's a couple of tips that haven't been mentioned yet:

If the catfish is very old or large, toss it back. The old large fish are more likely to taste strong or muddy. I've even had some that tasted like petroleum. :barf:

Fish from a pond or lake instead of a polluted sewer like the Mississippi River. :barf:
More than 12.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals such as nitrates, arsenic, benzene and mercury were dumped into the Mississippi River in 2010...
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Some species of catfish are more likely to taste strong or muddy. Try channel cats, stay clear of yellow-bellies if you want a mild flavor. I don't know about Blue Catfish and whatever other sorts live in the Mississippi.
 
james_colgan said:
We always slit the gills and bleed out Salmon right after we catch them when we plan to eat them. Ive always heard that it helps keep down a real fishy taste. Might work with Catfish?
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We always do the same. Usually I put large ones in a tub of clean water for a day and change the water at least once.
Cleaning is key
1. Nail head to tree
2. Cut tail off at base of filet to bleed fish
3. Cut through skin at base of neck
4. Grab pliers and pull skin off the fish
(Notice how skin slides smoothly off since tail removed)

That's how I learned and still do today. That blood fouls the meat and must be drained!
 
B.Mauser said:
My Grandma soaked them overnight in buttermilk.
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Trim the dark and then the buttermilk soak :thumbup:. Although Catfish is mild except for maybe some old mudcat.

I live in Alaska and you would think I would like salmon. Good gosh I hate that mess. You talking over powering fish oil smell/taste whatever. Try to clean your hands and it's impossible to get the stink off. The ONLY way I will eat salmon is smoked hard like jerky. Other than that, Halibut, Cod, Rock Fish, Sea Bass and some others. Fresh Pike is awesome, just got to get around the Y-bones.

Good luck on the choice of soak!!!
 
RussMo said:
Trim the dark and then the buttermilk soak :thumbup:. Although Catfish is mild except for maybe some old mudcat.

I live in Alaska and you would think I would like salmon. Good gosh I hate that mess. You talking over powering fish oil smell/taste whatever. Try to clean your hands and it's impossible to get the stink off. The ONLY way I will eat salmon is smoked hard like jerky. Other than that, Halibut, Cod, Rock Fish, Sea Bass and some others. Fresh Pike is awesome, just got to get around the Y-bones.

Good luck on the choice of soak!!!
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I have never had Catfish taste fishy! That is why I like it so much, guess I have been lucky and only gotten fresh Catfish. To me the only reason it would taste fishy is because it is not fresh. I lived in Tennesse most of my life, and never had a bad cat there.
 
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