Fried Catfish and Hushpuppies

The South is particular about its catfish. Whites eat only freshwater catfish from the rivers, while blacks eat seawater catfish at the mouths of the rivers. “Catfish must be cooked quite fresh,” Mrs. Porter warns in her New Southern Cookery Book (1871), “if possible, directly out of the water.” She preferred to fry them whole, scored with gashes and touched with cayenne along the incisions. “They are very nice dipped in a batter of b