Born in the Carolinas: Catfish Stew

S.C. Lowcountry Fall Traditions Part 3, plus a Bonus Recipe: Make your own pickled pork or venison sausage

Transform your leftover fish, wild game, or farm-raised meat into something magical, meaningful, and warm this holiday season.

There are a million ways to create the culinary concoction known as catfish stew, and almost as many ingredient variations, but they were all born right here in the South.

I once Googled the origins of catfish stew and the first item that popped up was an image of the American flag. Hell yeah, born in the USA and proud of it! And while the journalism professors have warned us not to trust Wikipedia as an always-reliable source (but why would they lie about something as serious as catfish?), old Wiki will shoot you straight and tell you that catfish stew is a dish commonly found in the Southern United States, particularly in good old South Carolina. God Bless the Palmetto State!

But if you were born Southern and raised right, then you didn’t need the Internet to tell you any of that. You probably had an Uncle Rudy who hung out at fish camps, told off-color jokes, smoked Marlboro Reds and drank Budweiser even on Sunday. While he never told anyone the secret ingredient to his stew, the whole family knew it was a can or two of ice cold Bud and a little Hunts ketchup that he added when he thought no one was looking.

(Crispy fried pork ‘fatback’ is the secret ingredient to one of these recipes below.)

Food historians and chefs know that catfish stew was inspired by both Native American traditions and African food ways, adapted with European ingredients. Stewed catfish dishes are widely found across western Africa, particularly in Nigeria, and likely inspired similar stews that have found their way into American bowls from the Savannah River to the Mississippi, where they keep a 100-pound catfish or two laying around. Catfish stew is such an important part of American food history that, if you searched the Internet thoroughly enough, you can find a version of the recipe served to George Washington at Mount Vernon. Catfish stew really bloomed in popularity in the 1930s, when Southern restaurants advertised their “famous catfish stews” to draw daily customers and attract folks for social functions and meetings. It was a filling meal and a cheap one, which was crucial during those Great Depression days.

Today, there are still eateries below the Mason Dixon known primarily for their unique version of this Southern classic. Catfish stew is so popular in the Palmetto State that Rock’s Pond Campground on South Carolina’s Lake Marion hosted a well-attended Catfish Stew Cook-off for years, and the small town of Elgin, S.C., celebrates a Catfish Stomp every December since 1976, featuring a parade, a carnival and hundreds of gallons of stew.

Catfish stew is such a standby with outdoorsmen and home cooks that when South Carolina Wildlife magazine asked for recipes back in the 1980s, they were bombarded with so many stew recipes that the editors devoted an entire chapter to catfish stew in their Southeastern Wildlife Cookbook.

I don’t think catfish stew is a passing fad.

(The fun of Catfish Stew begins long before you start cooking.)

Keep reading for the best catfish stew recipes you will ever try, and then try this pickled, smoked sausage recipe. Thanks for enjoying and subscribing!