Entertaining
The Southern Fish Fry: Catfish and Hushpuppies on the Banks
For more than a century, the Southern fish fry — catfish dredged in cornmeal and deep-fried, served with hushpuppies, coleslaw, and tartar sauce — has been the great democratic feast of the Deep South, born on the banks of the Edisto and kept alive by churches, civic clubs, and families.
If you want to understand the social life of the Deep South, go to a fish fry. For more than a century, the Southern fish fry — a communal gathering where catfish (and bream, crappie, and bass) are dredged in cornmeal and deep-fried in big pots, then spread on tables laden with hushpuppies, coleslaw, and tartar sauce — has been one of the defining rituals of Southern hospitality, a way of feeding a crowd that turns the catching of the fish into the occasion for the party.
**The Fish**
The star of the Southern fish fry is the catfish — most often the channel catfish, now farmed across the South and once caught wild in rivers, lakes, and bayous. As Wikipedia records, catfish is the traditional centerpiece of the fish fry, dredged in cornmeal, seasoned, and deep-fried until golden. In the early 20th century, the fish caught at Southern fish fries included catfish, bream, black bass, shad, and the redhorse — a river fish whose name would lend itself to the most famous accompaniment. The fish fry is, at its heart, a way to cook the catch immediately and abundantly, the frying done in deep fat over propane burners or, historically, over open fires.
**The Hushpuppy**
No fish fry is complete without hushpuppies — the deep-fried cornmeal batter balls served alongside. As the food historian Robert F. Moss has documented, the fried cornbread we now call a hushpuppy originated around the turn of the 20th century at South Carolina fish fries, where it was first known as 'red horse bread,' named for the redhorse fish. The undisputed king of the early fish fry was an African American man named Romeo Govan, who hosted fish fries on the banks of the Edisto River and served the cornmeal bread alongside the catch. The rival term 'hushpuppy' emerged in the 1920s in Georgia and Florida — an Augusta fishing columnist noted in 1940 that 'red horse' cornbread was 'often called hush puppies on the Georgia side of the Savannah River.' The name itself, Moss argues, almost certainly began as a slang term for silencing a growling stomach rather than the folklore of tossing corn cakes to barking dogs.
**The Gathering**
The fish fry has always been a social institution as much as a meal. Churches, civic clubs, political rallies, and families hosted fish fries on riverbanks, in backyards, and at community centers, the frying done in shifts and the eating done standing or perched on folding chairs. By the mid-20th century, the fish fry had crossed from the riverside into the restaurant, becoming a staple of Southern seafood houses — and, in time, the Friday night fish fry became a fixture of Lenten observance across the South and the Catholic Midwest alike.
**How to Host One**
To host a proper fish fry, you need a large pot, plenty of peanut or canola oil heated to 350-375 degrees, a cornmeal dredge seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little cayenne, and enough catfish fillets for the crowd. Serve with hushpuppies (cornmeal, flour, egg, buttermilk, onion, dropped by spoonfuls into the hot oil), coleslaw, tartar sauce, lemon wedges, hot sauce, and french fries or fried green tomatoes. Spread newspaper on the table, set out the sweet tea, and let the frying become the party. The genius of the fish fry is that the cooking is the gathering — the host stands at the fryer and the guests cycle through, the meal unfolding in waves.
**Why It Matters**
The Southern fish fry is the great democratic feast of the South — cheap, abundant, communal, and unpretentious, born of riverbanks and community halls and carried into the present by churches and families who keep the pots hot. It is a tradition in which the simplest ingredients — cornmeal, catfish, oil — become, through the act of frying and the act of gathering, one of the great American meals.
**References**
- Wikipedia: Hushpuppy — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushpuppy
- Robert F. Moss: The True Story of Hushpuppies, a Genuine Carolina Treat — https://robertfmoss.com/features/The-True-Story-of-Hushpuppies-a-Genuine-Carolina-Treat
- Wikipedia: Fish fry — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_fry
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