where did i go wrong?????

okay, I have cooked fish before but heres the scenario for today.
Thawed fish wed, let soak till this afternoon, drained and patted dry, then placed in 50/50 mix milk egg mixture to soak bout 20 minutes. fire on grease, temp bout 375-380- fish go in. watching closely crust golden to darker brown, out of grease and into paper towel lines plastic bowl.
Of course chef's gotta try what he's serving, but not happy. fish meat looked "moist/oily" instead of the white flaky meat normally. almost like the meat was just a bit under-done.
everyone liked it, but I wasn't happy. im thinking grease too hot, outside done too fast before inside. Has anyone had this problem, or do you think im on the right track?
Last time I cooked fish I controlled temp bout 350 max

any info appreciated

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tommyboyrn

okay, I have cooked fish before but heres the scenario for today.
Thawed fish wed, let soak till this afternoon, drained and patted dry, then placed in 50/50 mix milk egg mixture to soak bout 20 minutes. fire on grease, temp bout 375-380- fish go in. watching closely crust golden to darker brown, out of grease and into paper towel lines plastic bowl.
Of course chef's gotta try what he's serving, but not happy. fish meat looked "moist/oily" instead of the white flaky meat normally. almost like the meat was just a bit under-done.
everyone liked it, but I wasn't happy. im thinking grease too hot, outside done too fast before inside. Has anyone had this problem, or do you think im on the right track?
Last time I cooked fish I controlled temp bout 350 max

any info appreciated

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I think you are on the right track Tommy, I always try to keep my oil around 350 to 360 and fry um till the float

Not real sure but, I would not recomend letting your fish thaw and soak 3 days before you cook it.:eek:

Yep! Thats way to much soakin. Lightly flour, dip in milk&egg,dredge in breading then fry.

Eggs will cause your fillets/fish to brown, especially at high temps. If you
reduce to 325*+ it will allow the meat to cook evenly with the breading. And
soaking the fish makes the fillets swell up full of water. Ex Anyone ever notice
that when you put the fillets in a bowl full of water in the fridge the next
morning a part of the meat is out of the water and starting to dry? It's from
the fish expanding like a sponge with the water. To keep that fresh caught
taste, rinse your fish as little as possible, Never soak, and let it drain when
thawing. Fish will stay good in just a bag for 3 days in fridge, longer if you
keep it on ice and drain the "juices" from the bag daily. If freezing, the sooner
the better, immediately being the best. I prefer to freeze with water, others
don't. You don't get fat eating what you don't like.:D

I never soak fillets. Also, try to fry around 350*.

thanks guys for the info, this site is awesome.
appreciate it greatly

I don't soak crappie only other types of fish if they have a strong taste. Crappie are naturally sweet and mild.

I cook on 350 for 3 minutes or until it floats. Hardly ever go past 3 minutes unless its a really thick or whole fish. I use buttermilk as a wash or regular milk and occasionally hotsauce if I'm cooking for myself.

On an eggwash you want 1 egg per half cup of milk and dip em in before coating with batter.

Thats it, can't add much more cause I've cooked thousands of fish and never had much of a problem if the oil is dead on 350 and never crowd the fish in the pot.

Dredge your fillets thru some yellow mustard. Place in a brown bag full of your favorite fish breading and shake the chit out of it. place in 350 degree oil for 3 min or until fish float.

Try this. It is a deeelicious crunchy treat. Never soak it.

Well I tried again last night, and I let fillets thaw and no soak just lying in dish on paper towel, no rinse just dry battered fried at 360, but the batter wasn't crispy like resteraunts usually is and flesh was mushy making fillets flimsy. Its getting embarrasing. Am I leaving too much water in meat? And when I watched some guys at church fry fish, they didn't predip, they just took fillets and dry batteredf them, but when I did it, nothing worked right........please help

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

Quote:

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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.