Catfish - An Experiment

[Tyarra]

Okay, the day has come to try out the great Catfish Smoke Experiment.

I picked up a whole farm-raised catfish, this one still had head, tail and such, but had been gutted and some of the fins trimmed.   Basic brine, couple of hours, rinsed, and then rubbed it with our 'usual' rub.  Ended up holding it a day (was going to do it yesterday, but something came up, and doing it today), so it's been sitting in the fridge an extra day.

Put it in with 2.25 oz of oak, at 180°, stuck in a probe, set target temp for 150° - too high, too low?  Anyone have feedback on this point?

More as things progress...  Oh, and a pic below.

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[drains]

I've never smoked fish so someone else is going to have to have a go at this. I've fried hundreds of pounds of catfish rolled in cornmeal though, by time and sight not temp. Good luck with it.

[Tyarra]

Okay, 150° isn't quite enough ... alarm went off, but wasn't really done.

Waiting for it to hit 165° now. 

[BBQ4YO]

I love catfish………… I’m waiting…………. staring at the PC………… eating popcorn waiting for the finial results…………..

[Tyarra]

Okay, it came off at 165°, that seems to be about right.  (Oh, didn't mention earlier, our fish there was 2.8 pounds ... and Scott thinks it is a Blue Channel Catfish ... which is apparently some of the best, and what is usually farmed.)

SO ... I have it resting, while I've got some cornbread going in the oven.

Pic below ... and more once I've got it all plated.

[drains]

i bet it's delicious! Nice to see folks trying new things.

[SuperDave]

Did you skin it first?  Smoking a skin on catfish is like putting meat in a boot and sticking the boot in the smoker.  Years ago, a co-worker made catfish jerky and it was rather good. 

Just saw the picture so ignore my question about skinning. 

[Tyarra]

I left the skin on, and it helped hold the whole thing together ... once I started getting it onto the plates, it came apart in extremely tender pieces, that only through gentle handling was I able to not end up with a plateful of flakes.

Wild caught catfish, I would imagine to taste like you'd smoked a boot ...

Anyway ... Cornbread, made from a mix, added most of a can of creamed corn, baked it in the cast iron skillet ...

It was a very successful experiment.

[SuperDave]

Tyarra,
My boot reference was more to the fact that it is very difficult to get smoke into the fish with the skin on.  But if it turned out great for you that's what matters. 

[gregbooras]

I left the skin on, and it helped hold the whole thing together ... once I started getting it onto the plates, it came apart in extremely tender pieces, that only through gentle handling was I able to not end up with a plateful of flakes.



Anyway ... Cornbread, made from a mix, added most of a can of creamed corn, baked it in the cast iron skillet ...

It was a very successful experiment.

Looks really good, I will have to add this to my to do list!

Greg

[Tyarra]

Tyarra,
My boot reference was more to the fact that it is very difficult to get smoke into the fish with the skin on.  But if it turned out great for you that's what matters.

Oh!  No, this still got a good smoke taste - the belly of the fish was open, so it wasn't completely sealed up.    But, I can see where it could be a problem.  Maybe a few slashes through the skin might intensify the smoke.  Something to try on  a future attempt.