Thread: Catfish/muddy Taste

We have that problem with Bullhead sometimes and we soak them in buttermilk and then scim the top liquid off before cooking

Fatman

This is a lot of work but here is how I do it. Take a sharp fillet knife and slit the gills where they connect to the top of the head. Hold the fish in a net until it bleeds out. I then gut them and toss the guts. Pack in ice. When home skin with a knife rather than pliers. Leave a eighth inch of meat on the skin. Next remove the lateral line area. Remove all yellow tissue. Next rinse the fillets in a container until all fat is skimmed off. At this point the fillet should smell like clean pure air. The muddy taste is probably coming from a chemical produced by a type of cyanobacteria The chemical is called methylisoborneol. It’s a big problem on commercial fish farms. They actually have a professional taste tester come in and sample the fish before the lot is sold to a buyer. Muddy flavor in fish is seasonal and will probably lesson later in the year!

We usually keep our catfish in a fish box with clean well water for a couple days before dressing 'em. This helps to clean they out some and get rid of that muddy taste.

... is a strong, overbearing taste, it could be the red meat that's causing it. Many members have stated that, if you filet off the reddish meat portion of your Catfish fillets, the strong (muddy ?) taste will be lessened or removed.
I can't personally verify this, as I've seldom kept Catfish to eat. And the ones I did keep/eat ... were before I had heard of this.

It is, however, a good practice to remove & disgard any of the yellow fat along with the entrails, eggs, & skin. These are where most of the pollutants will congregate within the fish ...

... cp

This is the best way I have found for people like me who don't like the fishy/muddy/strong tasting catfish. Take electric knife and filet, just like a crappie. Take the filet and a very sharp knife and cut the red vein completely out, leaving two pieces out of each filet. Next trim any fatty/yellowish/dark colored junk off. After cleaning all the fish, put in whatever type container that will hold the filets or a portion of them not filling over 1/3 of the container. Next take garden hose with a nozzle and turn water on full pressure. Place nozzle over into container and adjust the stream to let the filets roll or tumble like a washing machine. Keep filets turning until water in the container is clear. Take filets and soak in salt water in refrigerator for several hours or overnight. One thing to be careful is until you are familiar with the water turning the filets, you might want to cover with something to keep filets from coming out of the container.

"The muddy taste is probably coming from a chemical produced by a type of cyanobacteria The chemical is called methylisoborneol." quote Slimecoat

This is what I was told about the catfish in my pond. It is caused from high organics in the water. They told me 72 hours in fresh water will remove the bad taste. With all the rain we have had my pond has flushed out real well and the mold taste in the fish is gone.

After filleting and cutting out the red meat leave the fillets in cold water in the fridge for a day or two and they'll turn as white as a crappie fillet. Makes 'em better.

I have been taught that to remove the yellow fat fron catfish particularly channel cats put them in boiling water. Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and drop the fillets in for 2 minutes. 2 minutes only, we don't want to cook them just release the fat. Remove the fillets from the boiling water after 2 minurs then fry as normal. I had heard of this idea several times so i tried it. It works every time. The yellow color is there but the foul taste is gone.

You also need to trim all the red meat off the fillets too. This helps immensely to improve the flavor. I would not eat channels before the boiling water trick. You will see a thin layer of yellow fat floating on top of the water after you have boiled several fillets so you know it is working.