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Thread: soaking fillets in milk hot sauce?

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    Default soaking fillets in milk hot sauce?


    im new to skinning eating fish never done it before cause hated fish as a kid i catch alot of cats from the creek is it true that you should soak the fillets in milk and hot sauce to take away any bad gamey flavor

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    You can reduce the "bad/gamey flavor" of catfish by removing as much of the "red" colored meat from the fish as possible.

    The milk (or buttermilk) soak is simply to reduce the "fishy" taste/odor ... the Hot Sauce is to help mask the flavor of the fish.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CrappiePappy View Post
    You can reduce the "bad/gamey flavor" of catfish by removing as much of the "red" colored meat from the fish as possible.

    The milk (or buttermilk) soak is simply to reduce the "fishy" taste/odor ... the Hot Sauce is to help mask the flavor of the fish.

    ok do you do the same for crappie? i have never tried crappie and in about a week gonna go collect a few to fillet

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    Crappie is one of the finest tasting of any freshwater table fare, in the opinion of many the finest. The fish offer tender, flaky fillets with such a sweet taste that I have never known anyone alter it’s natural flavor, other than to salt and add certain spices to enhance it to their own preference. The removal of dark meat ,that Pappy notes, found in certain species (bluefish, catfish, etc.) is not a character of all fish.
    Pass the "Sportsman Baton" on before you're gone, promote values for others to hunt and fish upon.

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    Quote Originally Posted by matt1991 View Post
    ok do you do the same for crappie? i have never tried crappie and in about a week gonna go collect a few to fillet
    In a word, no. All I do with Crappie is rinse the fillets after cleaning the fish, and if they're still fairly bloody I may put them in a bowl of water and refrigerate them. Adding a little table salt to the water can also help dissolve the blood. This is done mainly for those fillets that I am going to freeze. If I'm going to cook them within the following 48hrs, I just rinse them and put them in a ziplock bag & refrigerate them.

    I pan fry (iron skillet) my fish, and the only "coating" I use is plain yellow corn meal. It was the coating of choice in my family when cooking fish, regardless of the species. It does not add to or remove any of the taste of the fish, and with Crappie that's a plus in my book. I grew up eating Crappie & White Bass (cleaned with skin on) and the "fishy" taste of White Bass was not a deterrent to eating them. Crappie had a milder, sweeter taste ... and the sweeter taste was primarily from the skin being left on. I was probably well into my 30's-40's () before I started filleting fish. I'm 70 and mostly fillet fish because I'm not the only one that may end up eating them. It's also faster and less messy to fillet them, than to scale them/gut them/cut off the head or scale them & then fillet them with the skin still on.

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    Quote Originally Posted by matt1991 View Post
    im new to skinning eating fish never done it before cause hated fish as a kid i catch alot of cats from the creek is it true that you should soak the fillets in milk and hot sauce to take away any bad gamey flavor
    My dad never skinned a catfish . Dipped them in a pot of boiling water , wiped them off with a Burlap /toe sack cut headoff , remove guts drop in cooker . Always said he liked beef that taste like beef, chicken to taste like chicken, and fish to taste like Fish . Liked Falstaff beer and peewee Reese also . Was a man's man .
    Likes Cropduster1968 LIKED above post

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    I fillet all my cats with an electric knife, very easy once you get the hang of it.

    Make sure you have all the fat removed from the fillets, and if it's a very large fish make sure to cut the fillets into thinner pieces. The bigger the catfish, the more fish oil that is present. The fish oil is very fishy tasting, cooking in thin strips helps release that oil out of the meat.

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    I do love a good catfish fiddler, skinned and head removed, and cooked whole. Fiddlers are great as long as the fish is less than 2 lbs, if you go with catfish much bigger than that they are too fishy tasting and need to be filleted and cut into thin strips as mentioned in my post above.

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    To remove the "fishy" taste of catfish, particularly channel cats, drop the fillets in slightly salted boiling water. Leave the fillet in the rolling water for 2 minutes then remove. The boiling water releases the yellow fat which floats to the surface. The meat may still have a yellow tint to it. Now fry the fillet as you normally would. Initially, I was skeptical of this idea, but two old friends told me the same story so I tested the idea and it worked. My .02 cents

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    Just my opinion here. Removing the "fishy" taste from catfish is simple. The strong taste is in the fat. Fat is found in three places. 1. Top of the fillet (thin line of meat). 2. Bottom of fillet (again a thin line of meat). 3. Dark meat along lateral line. To remove the darker meat of the lateral line simply spilt the fillet from end to end down the middle. Cut the dark line out with your fillet knife.
    A very dear friend of mine taught me how to do this. He believed by removing the fat that blues rivaled the taste of a flathead and a channel would rival the taste of a blue. It's only my opinion (and taste buds) but I think he is right. Give it a try.

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