where did i go wrong?????

Sounds like your grease is still too hot cuasing it to start browning the fish before they have time to cook. Try reducing the heat to 315-325 and I believe your problem will go away. I only soak fillets after cleaning them...turns 'em white as snow. I dry batter my fish after letting stand on paper towels to drain for a couple minutes, flipping the fillets once on the paper. They cook deep fried for about 4 minutes.

Sometimes for crispier fish I'll pan fry. Enough oil so it comes up half way on the fillets. Oil hot enough to sizzle good when fillets are dropped in, flipping them once. Short cooking time too....just go by sight on how well they brown.

soaking fish shouldnt matter as long as they aint wet when you put em in your breading. i pull em outa the bowl of water. n squeeze the water out of em. then throw em in the breading. and straight to the fryer. 350 degrees is perfect. it you have alot of fillets then it will take longer. and try cutn your fillets into 2 or 3 pieces. let em fry 4 or 5 mins. when they r all floating and barely bubbling then they r crispy and dun. if yoou have a basket fryer and cant pull pieces out individually then i try and keep the thinner smaller pieces n 1 batch. and the bigger thicker pieces in another batch. cuz the thinner 1s r done n half the time the fat pieces are. its better for em to b a lil over cooked than all soggy n floppy

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Originally Posted by jhill10

soaking fish shouldnt matter as long as they aint wet when you put em in your breading. i pull em outa the bowl of water. n squeeze the water out of em. then throw em in the breading. and straight to the fryer. 350 degrees is perfect. it you have alot of fillets then it will take longer. and try cutn your fillets into 2 or 3 pieces. let em fry 4 or 5 mins. when they r all floating and barely bubbling then they r crispy and dun. if yoou have a basket fryer and cant pull pieces out individually then i try and keep the thinner smaller pieces n 1 batch. and the bigger thicker pieces in another batch. cuz the thinner 1s r done n half the time the fat pieces are. its better for em to b a lil over cooked than all soggy n floppy

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Sounds good to me. For crunchier fish double dip 'em. Dredge in breading, dip in egg wash, dredge in breading. 350* rocks and floating filets means dinner time.

thanks guys, I went to kroger and got 2 catfish fillets to practice my methods, made sure they were dry dreged in dry, quick wash with milk and redredged in breading mix and fried up, that seemed to work good as far as what I had in mind for the breading but your right..... the temp too hot so nexttime will cool my temps a bit to allow more cooking other than just the breading getting browned too fast.....
Thanks guys

Oil is not hot enough. 375 to 400 is what I used when cooking during my resturaunt years.

banjo, what kept breading from browning too fast and not cooking meat ( thicker fillets like catfish and bass), also, what breading mixdid you use while cooking in resturaunt

House Autry is hard to beat.If the oil is hot enough the fish will float in less than 5 minutes. Large filets unless you have a very large deepfryer,cools the oil down too much. At home either cut down the size of the filets or pan fry in a large black iron skillet.:biggrin

My method, for what it's worth. Fish soaking in water, whether fresh caught or thawed. If fresh caught keep in fridge or put ice in there with them. Gotta be cold. Take fillet out, lay on paper towel and LIGHTLY pat dry ( I want mine damp or close to wet, to hold more breading) Shake in breading (Andy's Red) Put in fryer set at 375* ( I haven't checked it w/ a thermometer) Don't overload the fryer, cools the oil too much and makes fish mushy/oily. The oil has to be hot enough to seal the breading when the fish is put in, imo. Fry for 5 min. +/- depending on size of fillets. Place on paper towel, and immediately add whatever, if anything, you want, ie. ground red pepper, lemon pepper, old bay, etc.

As for the folks @ the church.. you can rinse & go straight to breading, I'm guessing that's what they did works great with a good coarse breading mix. Then you can also go w/ a 3 step process. #1 dip in flour, #2 dip in egg wash (flour helps the eggwash stick), then 3 dip in your seasoned breading. That will give you a thcker breading than just the rinse/dip. Then you can also do a batter dip as opposed to breading. I'm still struggling to find a batter I'm satisfied with so I still need my own help in that dept. 1 more thing, you mentioned you put fillet's in paper towel lined bowl.... I would recommend you didn't dry them that way. The paper towels quickly get saturated & then they are just holding the oil & moisture against the fish. I put them on a... well can't think of what it's called @ the moment... but just a raised grate. Put the towels underneath to catch the dripping grease & not make a mess, but it won't hold the moisture against the fish.