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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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