Southern Staples: Fried Catfish

There are a few dishes that are so deeply rooted in Southern culture that it seem to be nothing other than iconic. Like many other now famous southern dishes, fried fish had long been a staple of West African and Native American diets. Fish, particularly catfish, was easy to catch and abundant in lakes and rivers throughout the region. Two dozen varieties of catfish can be found below the Mason Dixon and roughly a dozen are native to the land.

Popularity and availability of the flakey fish grew in the 1960’s as a result of the cotton farming industry collapse. Former cotton farmers of Mississippi and Arkansas chose to flood their fields and took to raising fish. Catfish is now the largest selling farm raised fish in the United States and rivals salmon and tilapia in popularity.   

For centuries, catfish has been cooked in one traditional way- breaded in cornmeal and fried in hot grease. Thanks to omnivorous, bottom eating habits, wild catfish has a strong flavor. The wild, strong flavor deterred many from the dish, but farm raising enables the fisherman to control the fish’s diets. Farm grown catfish are fed a grain- based diet that results in a neutral meat flavor that will easily take on the taste of the spices and ingredients used to prepare it.

Like grits and greens, fried catfish has grown in popularity, not just in the South, but throughout the United States. The southern staple can be found on restaurant menus in the trendy food scenes of New York and Los Angeles.

At FEED, we use the time- honored approach to cooking catfish. We soak our filets in buttermilk, dredge them in cornmeal and deep fry them to a crisp, golden brown, then we dress it with a corn salad and serve it up alongside buttermilk whipped potatoes and garlic green beans. We invite you to join us for dinner and try one of our favorite southern staples, fried catfish!