Drying your fish such as catfish at home for Christmas will be very easy for you to practice after reading this Post on the practical steps to drying your catfish at home for Christmas. Steps to dry or smoke catfish- how to grill fish.
What is a dried Catfish?
A simple definition is that “A dried Catfish is a catfish that has been exposed to heat for some time till it is dried to the level desired”.
A better definition is “A dried Catfish is a live Catfish that has undergone a series of processes which are killing, cleaning, gutting, seasoning, and heating consistently for a long period till it is
dried”.
What makes dried Catfish get spoilt quickly?
Catfish are known to contain a lot of oil, therefore they are required to be exposed to the heat source for a long period for a lot of oil to be released from the Catfish.
If the catfish is not properly dried and still contains a lot of oil, it will get spoilt within a few days. You will find maggots showing up inside the catfish within a few days if they are not properly dried.
Here are the practical steps to drying your Catfish at home:
1. Clean and gut the Catfish
2. Brining the Catfish
3. Dry the Catfish
Clean and gut the Catfish: The process of drying Catfish requires that the fish is first killed. There are various methods to kill a catfish but one which is common is the use of salt to weaken the fish and then it dies within some minutes. The salt is to be sprinkled in little quantities around the live Catfish.
During the process, the catfish will begin to jump in search of an escape route from the reach of the salt on its body. This is because salt causes a peppery sensation around the Fish.
After about 15 minutes, the Catfish gets weak and dies due to lack of water around it.
The next thing is the process of cleaning and gutting the catfish. This process involves cutting or opening the upper part of the belly of the fish and removing the gut or waste materials that are inside the fish. To do this, you will require a Knife, bowl, or plate and nylon or plastic to collect the waste.
After removing the gut or the waste, you will need to rinse the fish with clean water repeatedly till there are no more stains of blood around the fish. Fold the fish into a circle shape by using a clean Toothpick to attach the tail to the mouth or head part of the catfish. At this point, the fish is set to undergo brining.
Brining the Catfish: Brining is a simple process that is aimed at giving taste to your catfish. This involves dissolving some considerable amount of salt and seasoning if needed in water for the gutted Catfish to be soaked in for about 10 to 15 minutes. This is to allow the taste of the brine to soak into the fish and the catfish retain the taste when it is dried. This is the process that occurs during catfish processing that makes people give comments about a dried Catfish being sweet. Steps to dry or smoke catfish- how to grill fish.
It is important to note that if the salt sprinkling method was applied to kill the fish, there would be no need to use salt for the brining process because the level of salt may become too much which will affect the taste of the fish negatively.
After the brining stage, the next step is:
Drying the Catfish:
This is a very important part of the whole process. Before starting this stage, it is important to know that the process of drying Catfish is easy but it takes time.
Catfish is one unique type of fish that contains a lot of oil in it and this means that the processor is required to be patient in making sure that a good level of the oil is expelled or released from the catfish.
The first thing to consider at the drying stage is the type of heating chamber to be used for the drying process.
There are two types of heating chambers for catfish drying, CLICK HERE to read the blog post.
I have put together all you need to know concerning the process of drying fish and Snails in my course titled “THE BUSINESS OF DRIED FISH AND SNAIL PROCESSING”
This course contains a comprehensive E-book and some clear videos on the things you need to know about dried Fish and Snails.
In this course, you will learn the following:
- How to Process your Fish and Snail at Home and make money from it.
- Practical steps to drying your fish and snails at home for Christmas.
- Catfish and its consumption.
- Factors to consider before drying your catfish at home.
- Four popular sources of heat that can be used to process your fish and snails
- Items/ tools needed for drying your catfish and snails.
- How to soften dried or smoked Catfish.
- The difference between dried and smoked Catfish.
- How to cook dried or smoked Catfish.
- How to oven-dry Panla or Hake fish.
- How to process or dry fresh snails for export.
- Steps to cook dried or smoked snails.
- How to process Cutlet catfish for export.
- How to export your dried fish and snails.
- How to get buyers outside the country for your dried fish and snails.
I have packed so much value into the course for you. Click the button below to gain access to the course.
READ MORE: How to smoke catfish locally and in the oven
