Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, this catfish is seasoned to perfection with Cajun spices.
Catfish has been Mississippi Delta poor-people food for two centuries — bottom-feeding, abundant, free for anyone with a line. Cajun French-speaking communities along the Atchafalaya adopted it in the 1800s and added the cornmeal-and-spice dredge from existing fried-fish technique. Industrial catfish farming began in Mississippi in the 1960s, making the dish accessible nationwide.
Bottom-feeding Mississippi Delta poor-people food for two centuries — free for anyone with a line. Cornmeal, not flour, gives the rust-gold crackle and that cornbread snap. Soak fillets in buttermilk for 30 minutes first — casein binds with catfish's muddy off-flavors and rinses them off. Skip this and even farm-raised tastes pondy.
Catfish fillets dredged in seasoned cornmeal — paprika, cayenne, garlic, black pepper — and pan-fried or deep-fried until the crust is gold-brown and the flesh inside flakes white and clean. Squeeze of lemon, side of hush puppies. The crust should sing when tapped with a fork; if it's pale or soft, the oil was too cool or the cornmeal was too fine.
Cornmeal, not flour, is the divider. Flour gives a tighter, paler crust; cornmeal gives the gritty crackle and that rust-gold color. Soak the fillets in milk or buttermilk for 30 minutes first. Catfish carries two separate off-notes: generic fishiness from trimethylamine, which the casein in milk binds and rinses away; and the true muddy taste, from geosmin produced by pond algae — which the acid in buttermilk additionally helps break down. Skip this step and even clean farm-raised catfish tastes pondy.
Variations
Middendorf's in Akers, LA runs a thin-cut version battered the same morning; Lassis Inn in Jackson, MS goes whole-fish bone-in; Taylor Grocery near Oxford, MS is the bluegrass-and-fryer institution; the Catfish Capital of Belzoni, MS hosts the World Catfish Festival each April.
On the Palate
Where Cajun Catfish sits in the Cajun flavor cloud
Ingredients
How it's made
5 steps · 30 min
- 13 min
Mix cornmeal, flour, and Cajun seasoning in a shallow dish.
Watch outLean the coat toward cornmeal over flour — cornmeal is what gives the gritty crackle and the rust-gold color; flour alone stays pale and tight.
- 23 min
In another bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, and hot sauce.
- 35 min
Dip catfish fillets in the egg mixture, then dredge in the cornmeal mixture.
Watch outSoak the fillets in the buttermilk mix a full half hour before dredging — the milk binds the fishy notes and the acid breaks down the muddy pond taste, or even clean catfish tastes pondy.
- 48 min
Fry in hot oil until golden and crispy.
Watch outFry in oil hot enough that the fish bubbles vigorously on contact — drop it in too cool and the crust drinks oil and slides off instead of crisping.
- 52 min
Serve with a squeeze of lemon.
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