A Family Tradition

[StantheMan2567]

In the Cooking Crappie Forum when it is asked how to cook, fry, or bake our captured and cleaned quarry one will get just as many variations on the basic answer as we have members. Corn meal, flour, oil, butter, mustard, salt, pepper, Panko and so on. Broil, pan fry, deep fry, grill, fricassee and so forth. The question I have is - WHO cooks the fish in your family, not how it is cooked. The picture below shows 3 generations of Fish Fryers!
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This picture of my grandfather, my father, my brother and I was taken at Taw Caw Creek campground fish cleaning station on Santee Cooper, South Carolina in the 1970’s. I admit I get it honest, this passion to pursue panfish in all seasons and states; I started young. My maternal grandparents had a lake home on Lake Greenwood in Waterloo SC, one of my uncles lived on the Catawba River in Bethlehem NC and my other has a home and dock/ramp on Lake Murray in SC. Fishing in our family just came natural, and so does the cooking, but only by the patriarchs. As far back as I can remember the catch was always prepared by the eldest male of the family. Both sets of my grandparents grew up during the Great Depression and worked hard for everything they owned. My grandmothers worked twice as hard as they were expected to take care of the weekly and daily chores, which included cooking.... cooking everything BUT the fish. My grandfathers prepared the fish, period. Growing up, my father prepared the fish, period. Family fish fries, the men cooked the fish! Yes the matriarchs may have prepared the slaw, the beans, the onion rings and the hush puppies but the Men fried the fish, always. Both my uncles fried the fish for their clans, and now their sons, my cousins, fry the fish for their heirs. Is this normal? Of course I carry on this time honored tradition, as my bride of many years has never
dropped a panfish fillet in hot grease to this day. That is just the way it is and has always been known to me. My brother is not an outdoorsman but does prepare store bought farm raised Tilapia ( oh the horror) in a pan or in the oven for his motley crew. Cooking fish is not a chore to me, but a tradition spanning 3 generations of MEN ONLY. Who cooks the fish in your family, is it a tradition or just the means to a wonderful meal, or both?
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