Is Catfish a Garbage Fish? Let's Talk About Whether You Can Eat It and How to Make It Taste Good

Since catfish itself is a carnivorous fish that feeds on small fish or other aquatic animals, its flesh is edible. If the water quality is good, it should be relatively safe, but be careful to clean the internal organs thoroughly, and do not eat the swim bladder or the eggs, to avoid things like parasites. So is catfish a garbage fish? Can you eat it? How do you make it taste good?

Is catfish a garbage fish?

Catfish is highly adaptable, does not have high requirements for water quality, likes to live in sewage, and is an omnivorous fish. The meat it eats includes some rotting meat in the water. It often inhabits the middle and lower layers of water bodies, and when it gets cold it enters the mud to hibernate. When eating it, you should choose one whose body mucus is transparent and whose skin is not damaged. Catfish live in environments that are not very clean and carry many bacteria themselves, so they are a garbage fish.

Can you eat it?

Catfish can be eaten, because catfish are easy to raise, and the best season to eat them is between mid-spring and mid-summer. Moreover, catfish meat is tender, rich and delicious, has few bones, whets the appetite, and is easy to digest. Apart from the roe having an off taste and not being suitable for eating, the whole catfish is a treasure. Catfish is a valuable nutritional delicacy, recorded as early as in historical books, and can be compared with shark fin and wild soft-shelled turtle. Its dietary therapy effects and medicinal value are not possessed by other fish, and its unique effects of strengthening essence, strengthening bones, and prolonging life are its distinctive highlights.

However, besides small fish and shrimp, the pond catfish has an extremely heavy taste. It is especially fond of blood, internal organs, rotting matter, feces, and so on, and it grows quickly. It can even sometimes be found in manure pits. It is very simple to tell whether what you caught or bought is a pond catfish: just count the barbels. One with 8 barbels is a pond catfish, and even if it is farmed, it is recommended to eat less of it.

How to make it taste good

Steamed sea bass

Ingredients: 1 sea bass, 2 slices of ginger, 1 section of scallion, 2 millet peppers, an appropriate amount of corn oil, an appropriate amount of steamed fish soy sauce, an appropriate amount of salt, an appropriate amount of cooking wine

Steps for steamed sea bass:

1. First clean the sea bass, and use a knife to make a few diagonal cuts on the back of the fish.

2. Shred the ginger and scallion, and cut the millet peppers into pieces.

3. Put some of the shredded ginger and scallion on the fish, pour in an appropriate amount of cooking wine, sprinkle some salt, spread it evenly, and marinate for 30 minutes.

4. Once the water in the steamer is boiling, put in the fish, steam over high heat for 8 minutes, turn off the heat and let it sit for 3 minutes.

5. It is steamed.

6. Pour off the juices, and pick out the shredded ginger and scallion. (It must be poured off; this liquid is very fishy.)

7. Drizzle the steamed fish soy sauce over the fish, then put the remaining shredded ginger and scallion and the millet peppers on top of the fish. Heat oil in a pan, and once the oil is hot, pour it over the fish.

8. The steamed sea bass is done.

Tips

When marinating the fish, add a little less salt, because the steamed fish soy sauce is salty. When eating the fish, dip it in the steamed fish soy sauce, and the flavor is especially delicious!