Catching and eating “Fryer” size catfish

I was well into my twenties before I set down to a platter of catfish fillets. I was raised eating catfish either fried whole or cut into ‘steaks’. My Dad probably didn’t even know what a ‘fillet’ was. Had he known, I’m positive he would have considered the practice of filleting a waste of good fish!

The bigger catfish were ‘steaked” or cut, bone in, into frying size chunks and smaller catfish between 10 and 12 inches that fit into a frying pan whole were simple cleaned, skinned, heads removed and then seasoned with salt and pepper, dusted with cornmeal and fried until they were a crunchy golden brown.

After devouring a few tasty catfish prepared in this manner a couple of days ago, I found myself wondering why I had abandoned the practice of skinning smaller catfish years ago!

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