I am only able to pan fry at home and am very inexperienced with doing it. I also have splattering problems. Oil too hot? The oil mixing with the water?
Simple recipes you guys love? I mostly keep/eat walleye.
Any information you guys can share in regards to preparing/cooking walleye is very appreciated.
I only use canola oil in my deep fryer. I would use it in a pan too.
Lard, tallow or expeller pressed sunflower or safflower oil only for me. Olive oil is good too. My stomach can’t handle the highly processed vegetable oils.
Stay away from Crisco (shortening) and other hydrogenated vegetable oils. These are the worst for your health.
I use peanut oil heated to 375 degrees. And I only use dry breading on my fish. Make sure you pat your fish dry before breading it stops the oil from spattering.
Peanut oil or canola oil. Some splatter is going to happen if you have the oil at the correct temperature…it really can’t be avoided.
I prefer peanut or canola oil at 380 or so. I do not do a traditional propane deep fry unless I’m cooking for a lot of people. Rather, I like to cook fish in about 1/4″ of oil at most in an electric frypan. I take the frypan and a couple beers out to the garage and fry with the door open. The extra bit of oil goes in the weeds and I can clean the frypan in 30 seconds. There’s literally no mess or smell in the house.
Canola for me, mostly because it’s what I always have in my cabinet. Fancier fats are nice but spendy and can be more finicky to store so YMMV. A deeper vessel (like a dutch oven instead of a skillet) or steel splatter screen are also your friends to help keep the mess to a minimum.
350 is where I prefer to fry fish and I usually make beer batter, kept thin and cold, dredging the fish in cornstarch before the batter. Since batter keeps the oil more clean than breading, I usually get 3 uses out of my oil before it breaks down.
Also remember that when people complain about the smell of frying fish in the house, it’s because the oil they’re using is bad/rancid and that’s what stinks, not the food that’s getting fried.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Very helpful, thank you everyone!
Peanut or canola oil, squeeze fish to get rid of excess water before breading. Get one of those wire mess pan covers to put over pan to prevent splatter . I use air fryer just for a couple of people, brush a small bit of oil on top and you are done.
I use peanut oil, canola oil if there’s no peanut oil in the house. Use oil with a smoke point higher than your cooking temperature. Lard and butter don’t work for me.
Pan fry in a cast iron skillet at about 375 degrees.
Wash and pat dry filets with paper towel.
Put flour and ground black pepper in a plastic bag. Drop in filets, shake until coated with flour.
Remove from flour and dip in egg wash (whisked eggs).
Coat in crushed saltine crumbs.
Set in skillet using tongs.
Fry until golden brown.
Remove and set on paper towels for one minute.
Serve
Oil Smoke Point
Safflower oil 510°F
Soybean oil 453°F
Corn oil 453°F
Sesame oil 450°F
Peanut oil 443°F
Canola oil 437°F
Olive oil 410°F
Lard 374°F
Sesame oil 350°F
Butter 302°F
I like almond or walnut oil. Expeller pressed and full of delicious goodness. Walnut oil is also real good for frying up morels. And if I get either oils on my hands I can just rub them in instead of having to wash it off and my hands are nice and soft instead of greasy.
Safflower, sunflower, and grapeseed oil are also some good alternatives I use occasionally that are not only good for your insides but also good for your skin. And hair for that matter. A couple drops of any, or all, of those oils on your fingers, run it through your beard, and reap the benefits of healthy skin and hair all the while frying up a delicious meal!
Typically use canola oil in my 2 basin electric deep fryer. Which sits in the garage on the work bench so the house doesn’t stink when cooking.
Canola/Vegetable oil if deep frying, pan frying I will use olive oil and butter but that requires thinner/smaller pieces of fish to get them cooked thru before the breading burns.
I prefer clarified butter (pure Ghee) for small batches. Gets the fish crisper and tastes better. Smoke point 483 degrees.
Bigger batches canola oil for cost and ease.
Peanut oil all the way. It’s a little spendy but has a higher smoke temp and doesn’t smell like vegetable oil or Canola oil.
just buy a splatter screen for your fry pan….fits over the pan , has a handle…
Peanut oil for me at about 375. I no longer use a egg wash as all. The egg wash tends to make the oil break down and turn dark much faster. I go from Soaking fish in really cold beer for 15 minutes or so into a Gallon Zip lock bag with a dry breading of choice ( Current favorite is Zatarains Seasoned fish fry – From Walmart or Sam’s club ) Don’t overcook. Most fish in hot oil only need a Few minutes per side at the most.
I started using cottonseed oil a number of years ago and its all I use now. I dont pan fry fish very often, but I fry turkeys, fish, wings, you name it cottonseed oil. MUCH higher flash point to protect you from burning the oil and you can filter and reuse it much like peanut oil. I wouldnt do that with any other oil because they are trash after one use.
for several years I used sunflower oil,olive oil has become my favorite of late until last weekend.
I used avocado oil last saturday and was absolutely amazed at how good that stuff is !!
if I remember right its smoke point is 500 degrees or a little higher.
I fry at 375 so there is no chance of smoking the oil and ruining a good batch of fish.
recipe I use for all fish and I mix different species together and all of it tastes the same.
1/4 cup of lemon juice concentrate to 1 quart of cold water.
soak the fillets about twenty minutes or until you see the flesh start to turn white from the citric acid.
rinse in cold water,pat dry and bread with your favorite breading,mine is Andy’s red breading.
fry at 375 for three to four minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets.
NOTE: the lemon juice imparts zero of its flavor in the fish,it will remove all blood and fishy smells and your house wont stink while frying.
remember to add a large pinch of the breading to the hot oil to season the oil before you start putting the fillets in.
Walleye and sunfish have a very delicate flavor, surprised so many recomended peanut oil which has a strong flavor. I would use peanut oil for catfish or bass (yes I eat bass) I get that its smoke point is high…liked the idea of an electric skillet in the garage, with a beer; might try that for the next family ff.
This. It’s soybean oil. 460° smoke point. Sam’s club. I do a couple of fish fry’s for up to 50 plus people a year I also use MIES seasoning. You can use this as a dry seasoning or mix it with liquid for a traditional batter fish fry.
15736942567301665491476511485698.jpg
I’ve used a few different kinds of oils, can’t say I notice a big difference. If you’re breaking the 400 degree mark you’re not paying enough attention and charring your breading.
We might fry one meal a month, so I’m not concerned about saving oil, and I’m not going to spend $20-50 a gallon either. Corn, Canola, Vegetable, even Crisco for me if that’s all I have.
My current favorite recipe is easy as pie and incredible tasting.
If you like chicken wings or fried fish, you’ll love this recipe.
Take you fillets and cut them down into fingers (panfish in half, walleye or Pike into multiple pieces). I like to zipper walleyes over 15″ or so.
Next, put the pieces in a zip lock bag and give them a big dose of either Frank’s hot sauce or Crystal hot sauce (pronounced Cree-Stall) 
I’m talking like 6 oz or so to a half gallon of fish. It’s not hot, just adds a nice flavor.
Let it soak for 10-15 minutes rolling the bag periodically. You can use less sauce for a longer period and have similar results.
In another gallon bag, dump in a box of Shore Lunch CLASSIC FRIED CHICKEN mix.
Shake up the fingers and let sit in the dry mix for a few minutes. Pull them out and set on a plate.
Once the dry breading has saturated itself from the fish (takes a few minutes and looks translucent), place in 375° oil.
The oil temp can vary between 325-400 without panicking. {Total side note- For a real beer batter, never exceed 350, or it will brown too fast and seal in too much moisture}
The next tip is important……
INTENTIONALLY OVER-COOK THE FISH
I don’t mean burn it, but cook it longer than it needs to. Wait until most of the steam stops escaping and all the pieces are floating high. It could be twice as long as some of you are used to cooking fish. There is no magic number I can give you, it will vary with oil temp and fish thickness.
Now pull them and set on cookie drying racks or fresh paper towels. You will love the outcome. They’re like little fish-chicken fingers Not a single piece will make it through the night.
I like frying all of my fish longer than it needs to or you’ve been taught to. It turns out a more solid and “less oily” product.
If you pull fish as soon as it’s “cooked”, they are full of moisture and get soggy right away. Soggy fish comes off as oily and unappetizing, even though it really isn’t oil.
I like cooking fish outside or in the garage if the weather is crappy.
With experience and proper precautions I feel 100% safe using propane and a cast iron Dutch oven inside the garage. (Lower flame, some ventilation, fire extinguisher, water hose and attention)
It’s as safe or even safer than frying in the house. Plus the beer fridge is right there 
IMG_20191113_202323.jpg
Peanut oil in a Fryin Saucer. Endorsed by all the normally non fish eaters I know.
Walleye and sunfish have a very delicate flavor, surprised so many recomended peanut oil which has a strong flavor. I would use peanut oil for catfish or bass (yes I eat bass) I get that its smoke point is high…liked the idea of an electric skillet in the garage, with a beer; might try that for the next family ff.
I have never noticed a flavor difference when using Peanut oil.
Don’t worry at all about eating Bass. Like you I also eat a few of them each year. Mostly smaller fish from cooler spring or fall water. People don’t understand how good bass are to eat. The key is keeping smaller fish ( 12-14″ ) and from cooler water. Bleeding them really helps as well. I do this on almost all fish these days.
I use peanut bc I think it actually tastes less than others. Olive is just completely overpowering to me but to each their own.
I love olive oil but almost never use it for frying anything.
Quaker State Synthetic 5W-30
Quaker State Synthetic 5W-30
Thank you all! I need to catch more fish so I can experiment with everything from above. Good thing we’re making ice 
Vege oil from Sam’s club….
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
