The Kitchen
Here is where the fish stories really
heat up! Typically, the catfish is served in steak form. With the
fish laying flat on the cutting board, it is cut in about 1"
steaks. The fish is dropped in a dry corn meal mixture and then
deep fired until golden brown, about 15 minutes. When done, it
will flake off the bone, releasing the trapped steam and then
(yum) the real fun begins.
As seen here, the hush puppy batter is rolled off the finger tips into the hot oil. It quickly forms a crust and then continues to cook until it floats to the surface. The onions in the batter help keep it moist. The fish is cooked separate from the hush puppies and French fries, in fryers #1 and #2.
Prep work is done in the
morning, chopping onions, slicing fish and priming the cannons.
However, once the fryers get to 350, they don't cool down until
closing time. Hush puppies, catfish and French fires are deep
fired in pure vegetable oil. Around the Winter holidays, smoked
fish shipping ramps up. This too is an off-hours chore as the
process takes the better part of the day.
