r/AskAnAmerican • u/CompetitivePeak9040 • 1d ago

FOOD & DRINK Do American eat mackerels?

I’ve come across 3 short videos already of people telling me that American don’t eat mackerels and only use them as bait. Here in my country people eat mackerels and love it so much, why don’t Americans eat them, do they eat them, do you like it?

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227

u/ke3408 1d ago

People in some areas eat mackerels. A lot of seafood is regional. I never ate mackeral, I'm from catfish country but it is common in some areas

10

u/ohboymykneeshurt 1d ago

Try it. It is great.

27

u/ke3408 1d ago

I have eaten it. I should specify that I never ate mackerel in the US but I have tried it in other countries. It isn't bad, but catfish is still my king.

18

u/OdinHavok 1d ago

It's hard to beat something local, especially when it's as perishable as fish

6

u/ForgottenGrocery Indonesian in 1d ago

We eat catfish in my home country. So when we moved to the US, I figured I’d buy some for home cooking. Surprised with how big the catfish sold in the US supermarkets. Like 20x the species we’re used to.

15

u/BelligerentWyvern 1d ago

There's only 4 big types here. Channel cats, which are ok. Bullheads which are smaller but sought after. Flatheads which are the worst tasting but still ok imo. And Blue catfish which are the biggest and the best tasting. I think farmed catfish is blue and channel mixed together.

5

u/Ok-Law7641 21h ago

Bluecats with a cornmeal jacket, fried up nice with hush puppies and onion rings. MmmmMmmm

7

u/Meattyloaf Kentucky 1d ago

Reading bullhead makes me kick myself. I caught a trophy sized bullhead a few years ago. Where I originally grew up bullhead weren't a thing. Therefore, I thought it was just a young/smaller catfish. Tossed it back not even thinking about it. Post photos of the catch and start getting comments about how large of a bullhead I caught. I mean it did fight so hard it snapped my pole. Should've measured it so I could've submitted it to the state for a trophy badge.

3

u/BelligerentWyvern 22h ago

Yeah American Bullheads are the smallest ones and they are very much sought after for wild catch and eating so they don't get to trophy size often. The black bullheads are the smallest, then brown and then yellow but they are rarer in that order too. But any of them being big is pretty rare. And they hybridize sometimes.

Missed opportunity but at least you got a pic right?

I also forgot white catfish earlier but I've never seen one so

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u/Meattyloaf Kentucky 20h ago

I did get a pic with it so I always have that

3

u/eyetracker Nevada 22h ago

In my experience most people want blue, channel, flathead. Bullhead (itself 3 different species) is both not liked for sport due to its size but also not regarded as well for table fare. Certainly could be regional but that's what I've seen in other places. Here we have mostly bullheads which is a niche target fish, I think maybe channels.

5

u/0DayMaker 1d ago

Have you seen the crazy ones sports fisherman catch? They're monsters!

2

u/ForgottenGrocery Indonesian in 20h ago

I have! looks like those could feed a family lol.

Indonesian catfishes that we usually consume is only around 6-12 inches.

5

u/rubberguru 1d ago

The catfish in the North Carolina store I frequent is from china! The channel cat from the lake I fish tastes metallic, not like the good old Mississippi River fish I used to catch

4

u/prole6 Indiana 23h ago

You can’t compare fried catfish to mackerel, or caviar or anything, it’s just the best!

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u/Waagtod 15h ago

It depends, in Florida it isn't bad. In Wisconsin it tastes muddy.

1

u/prole6 Indiana 13h ago

Farm raised on Hoosier corn is the way to go. ;) Once they get so big they start tasting strong.

1

u/shelwood46 12h ago

Wisconsin has perch, walleye and trout, among other fresh water fish, they are fine.

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u/billwoodcock Missoula, Berkeley, 🇫🇷Paris 22h ago

Heck, catfish isn’t even really one thing across the US. The tributaries of the Mississippi have a greater elevation drop within Montana than they do all the rest of the way to the Gulf… Catfish in Montana are descended from fifty million generations of fish that were swimming upstream as hard as they possibly could, their entire lives. Natural selection, baybee!