Yes, You Could Be Killed By A Catfish

Better to eat than be eaten by!

My dear grandmother was a queen of the traditional kitchen but she was a prude when it came to catfish. They were not allowed in her kitchen. There were several likely reasons for that and I will get to them, but first let’s talk man-eating, venomous catfish.

   Seriously? Yes indeed. Catfish credited with gobbling humans include the Piraiba of the Amazon, weighing up to 400 pounds, said to have killed several unfortunates. And there are also eyewitness reports, considered credible, of three deaths from attacks by the goonch catfish in India.
   Goonch may weigh over 200 pounds.

  
There are other large catfish that do not have the man-eater reputation, notably the largest known catfish, weighing 646 pounds, a Mekong caught in Thailand in 2005. There are numerous reports of catfish weighing hundreds of pounds, generally caught in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand or Vietnam (where they are said to face extinction).

   In the US the largest caught weighed 130 pounds.

   Okay, so now you know what areas to avoid if you don’t want to be part of the diet of the giant catfish. But further dangers exist. We’re talking venomous catfish.

   According to LiveScience.Com there are over 1,500 species of venomous catfish, some that can kill humans, though those in the US only deliver a bee sting. Some species, including the popular flathead catfish, aren't poisonous at all.

   I searched for the University of Michigan study on the matter to find where venomous catfish hang out but could only find references to the study, not the actual document.

For one other thing to worry about, there is an electric catfish in some African rivers like the Nile that can deliver 300 to 400 volts -- enough to stun a person.

                      Fakery and Prejudice

   There are said to be 3,000 types of catfish but blue, channel and flathead are the ones we in the US go for.

But … you may be eating another sort of catfish and not know it. Cheap Asian catfish (pangasius) has been sold in restaurants and supermarkets as grouper, sole, red snapper, cod and fourteen other “high value” fish. For example, a 2015 investigation found that more than a third of 19 restaurants in Atlanta were selling pangasius as grouper.

   Unfortunately  less than 1 percent of imported seafood is inspected for mislabeling in the United States, according to Oceana conservation advocacy group.

   Okay, so let’s take a look at grandma’s prejudice against catfish, what seems to have been the dear old gal’s problem?

   In her day, perhaps it was the Biblical injunction of Leviticus 11:10 that influenced her: “But whatever is in the seas and in the rivers that does not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the water, and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you …” As far as I can tell, Jews, Muslims and Seventh Day Adventists are forbidden to eat catfish, I don’t know who else.

   In addition to the fire and brimstone aspect, catfish was looked down upon by elitists as food of Native Americans, African Americans, poor whites. And by some dismissed as “Catholic food.”

   I have read that the early settlers, northern Europeans, shunned catfish as beneath their culinary dignity. But there is evidence to the contrary. Possibly the first American cookbook, The Virginia Housewife features a catfish soup recipe for those who do not hold “a needless prejudice against those delicious fish.”

                                      You Are What You Eat?

   Another prejudice results from viewing the catfish as a scavenger that wallows in the mud, a bottom-feeder. So does that prejudice extend to lobster, how about crabs? From what I’ve read it appears that catfish are as noble as many other freshwater fish in their diets. Several sites say young catfish feed on aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae, water beetles and fly larvae. Older ones likely eat small fish, seeds, aquatic plants, algae, crawfish and snails.

   Farm raised catfish probably eat protein pellets made of soybeans, corn, wheat, vitamins, minerals, and a sweetener of some sort (because fish take on the taste of what they eat).

   Of course it is said and believed that catfish live on debris from the river-bottom. I guess the fishermen where I lived bought into that because they would bait trot -lines with the most wretched, foul-smelling stuff – chicken guts that had been sitting around for a week or two.

   I have to say, there was nothing could beat being out late on a quiet moonlit night on a waterway in bayou country, running a trot-line. There was a sort of primitive, timeless beauty to the scene. That experience has to be one of my favorite memories of a lifetime.

    Catching catfish by hand is a popular sport in some sections of the country but I have never seen it done. If you want to know more, check out noodling for catfish on YouTube.

   So let’s get down to the eating. Catfish is fried, baked, stewed or preserved (dried, pickled or smoked). Where I lived, fried catfish rivaled steak as a favorite food. It was usually served with cole slaw and hush puppies. Some people make the mistake of using a flour batter that holds moisture in; they should use corn meal to make a flaky fish with moisture drawn out.

   Of course, modern chefs (we’re talking celebrities, not everyday cooks) have to get fancy. How else to charge big hefty prices for a cheap fish? Bill Clinton is said to have a taste for catfish pecan meunière as served at Brennan’s Palace in New Orleans. Just a guess based on prowling some related sites, I’d say expect to pay around $35 for a gussied up filet.

   Interestingly, the catfish prejudice seems to extend to cookbooks. Many that I consulted had nothing to say about this popular southern dish. The internet to the rescue, here are a batch of seriously great catfish recipes.

   In conclusion, let me pass along a tip that you may thank me for one day, it could keep you out of jail: According to the Arkansas Road Stories site, catfish is defined as "livestock" under the laws of that state -- so poaching catfish from a farmer's pond carries with it the same penalties as cattle rustling. Looks to me like we’re talking a Class C felony, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and a prison term from three to 10 years.