 The catfish versus the crappie. Can you make this one taste better than this one? Let's find out in today's cooking challenge. Welcome back to the channel, everybody. We are going to do some cooking today. On a couple of recent dangled trips, I got me some crappie and I got a catfish. I don't often have those in the same mixture. And so kind of like the other day, when I had crappie and walleye, I was like, I want to see which one tastes better. Crappie, by the way, I don't think there's any question. The overall abundance and deliciousness, it's got to be one of the top picks around. But the catfish, especially many in the south, might argue, get a whole fry of catfish. That's just the most deliciousness ever. At least that's what my mama might say. But I think catfish has a little bit of a gaminess to it. And it's definitely not as tasty as the pure white, golden, crispy of a crappie. So here's the deal. I've got both in the cooler right now, along with some white bass. We're just cooking those up for sustenance, but the real challengers here today are the channel catfish and the North American white crappie. So the challenge part of today's video is that me and OSG are going to be cooking off against each other. And I'm going to be giving her the best meat. I think in most people's opinion, the crappie. I'm going to get the catfish and see if I can make the catfish taste better than her crappie. Now, some of you may be saying, LFG, you're not as good as cook as OSG. This is a cooking competition. You're not going to win. However, I think in the fish department, I have a little special golden ticket because I've been cooking fish since I was no bigger than a little tick. You get what I'm saying? Since I was a little dangler. Step one, let's get that blade out and let's make some plays. We have our fillets. I think you can tell which one to switch. So we'll get a little bit more on the catfish, just a bigger creature. And then the beautiful, the pure crappie. Are you ready to tango in the kitchen? Tango in the kitchen. I'm ready. So I don't even know what we're doing. Oh, I haven't informed you of this competition. No, you just told me, honey, you're cooking these fish tonight. That's pretty typical. Just getting my own dangling world sometimes. So honey, you are getting the best fish. You can do whatever you want. You could do mango slices, cook it in some red wine. I don't know, all sorts of whatever you want. You've got the full OSG kitchen going on at your disposal. I've got the catfish, a gainier fish. My challenge is to make the catfish taste better than the crappie against you. Okay, I gave you the best fish. In my opinion, I have more experience cooking fish than you do though. Do you think you do? I do. Oh yeah. Okay, let's not forget the first meal I ever cooked you was indeed fish. It was tilapia, which was probably the bottom of the list on both of these. We've come a long way, folks. Fun fact about tilapia, maybe I should tell them. If you want to know the fun facts about tilapia, just let me know in the comments right here. I studied ecology and fisheries ecology in specific in school. And anyway, they're a fun thing to learn about. The only rule in this competition, we're just going to have a time limit. Okay. Okay, you have 20 minutes. It's a 20 minute time limit to complete your dish. That's it. Okay. Okay, you got skills. I have something going on. Let's do this. Wait, you've already been thinking about this. This is unfair. You're supposed to be OSG in the kitchen. In the kitchen? You know, the healthy chew. Let's do it. Okay, you got avocados ready on hand? No. Let the competition begin. Now, what are you doing? I love this stuff so much. Okay, so we actually have a special judge coming over this evening. Okay. In her name is my mom. I actually did not know she was coming over until very recently, like once we started this. So here's a tip for you guys on making all of your fish a little better, whatever you're wanting to do, before you apply your sauces, whether it's a batter or whatever it is. I like to pad mine dry. Go ahead and rinse them off. Pat them dry. That's going to just prevent that water from being a layer or getting your batter sticky. It's just better to just kind of pat them a little bit. You don't have to have them like jerky. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go with some standard fish batter, a little Cosmo creation, and I'm also going to add a little spice to it. Just a little bit. My mom does not like a little spice. Your old Frank's red hot, so that's a bad move starting off. I'm going to go with Honey Chipotle Killer B. This is actually like a steak rub. It's a dry rub. I'm just going to throw some of this in here and see what we come up with. I'm going to be frying my fish and some hot oil with the batter. And I decided to go with the baked method. She likes plain and she likes a lot of cornmeal, but she's not getting cornmeal. I'm going to try to change her mind with this. However, you have the crappie, which is the best meat. I fell a little trick up my sleeve. I have like some kind of creativity. My creativity is down the dumps right now because I've been kind of feeling a little sick today. That's why I chose this day. I know. So I can feed you. You knew. Okay, another thing. I was out of disadvantage because catfish normally has some gaininess to it. I would have shown you this during the cleaning process, but YouTube's got a little weird lately. So I took my filet knife and I just kind of floated it and I cut not right next to the skin like I do with every other fish, but I floated it like a 16th of an inch over the meat there. So there's, I left a little bit of meat on the catfish on the filet, but it prevented some of that gaining flavor from getting on there. So it's just an easier way to, if you want to just quickly filet a catfish, but also take some of the, the gaininess out of it. So my filet has actually turned out really white and really nice and there's just a small little bloodline in there. We got our honey spotlight killer V rub in there, along with our just standard. This is flour. This is a little bit of paprika, a little bit of salt. It's a very like base mixture. OSG going with a special recipe. I know. You got a lot of things going on over here. I've known for the mixtures here, known for secret sauces. So I'm actually going to do a croppy, a baked croppy sandwich with a sweetened barbecue sauce on top. Oh, whoa. You're going full sandwich mode. Okay. All right. I just got a little scared there. That sounds awesome. It doesn't. I can't wait to try yours actually. Well, there's only two filets. So you're making like a po-boy. Is that what a po-boy is? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm definitely beating you. You don't even know what a po-boy is. You think you know how to cook fish? I got this. I got this a lock. I'm still waiting for my grease to heat up. Wait. Can I look it up? It looks like a mirror. I need the interwebs. Tell me what a po-boy boy. A po-boy. A po-boy. Why can't I never talk? It's actually poor boy, but you know, Po-boy. Louisiana, they just put a little approximate on there called po-boy. You're going to shrimp po-boy. Shrimp. Yeah. Yeah. Like you just throw it in the same question. Oh, yeah. Again. Okay. Our next big trip. We're going to Louisiana. Louisiana. And we're having some proper seafood. Me and OSG. If you want to see that, let me know what you got there. You got some redfish. Redfish on the half shell. Come on now. OSG also going with a panko. Panko? Mixed your on top. So some crumblies. Yeah. And you got sweet, spicy. You're going all out and finishing. You're finishing with a little sauce. I did Frank's red hot. And then I added some sweet and spicy seafood rub. I think it might be a little spicy. That's why I'm adding the sweet barbecue sauce to kind of level out that spice. You're like almost caging. So I heated up a little bit to kind of like get the maple syrup in there. Oh, I smell it. Do you smell it? It smells so good. It smells sweet like nectar. Like my mouth is watering. Nectar crappies. Shake a big. Simply just put them in there and do both of them at the same time. Seal it up. You're touched in the buns too. Oh yeah, I'm going the extra mile. Wow. I feel like my mom's going to favor you just because you're your favorite. Oh yeah, that's that's true. We're going in autumn mode. So okay, let's do a little sprinkle test. See if we're hot. Do you want to see if your grease is hot enough? Just take a little bit of your flour. See if it sizzles. It's not sizzling. I'm just trying to sound talking. I don't know how to work it on. It's too hot. Time for the hot grease. We're all going to come in close. This is always the best part right here. We're going to start the bubble. Dear bubble, come on now. You can go ahead. If it was Oshie. I don't want to waste your time here. Look at that. Beautifully coated. Oh, if this was Oshie, I'd wait just a second. Beautifully coated. I'm waiting as we speak. Okay. I think you treat your fish. Come on, the audience is waiting here. I treat my filet. When I get it, when I catch a fish, I get excited because I immediately think about how good it's going to taste coming out of the hot grease. That's a good thought, probably. You catch a nice catfish or a croppie, you're like, yes. Yeah, come on, man. It's a light sizzle. Light sizzle is coming. That's such a delicate little sizzle. It is. You want it to be a little, a little bit more intense than that. But it's getting hot. We're on a time limit right here. So here we go. We have a six minute timer. Or what is it? 15. Golden crispies. Oh yeah, mine are almost done. How are you doing? I can't really tell. But I think I'm doing okay. They're turning a little golden as we go. They are turning golden. Don't let them cook too long, man. You got some dandruffies. You didn't get some fat bags, like 15 inches. I don't know. That was a 13-incher. This is like where I am faulty because I don't know how long this fish is. Yes. And you got your buns. Still haven't been cooked over here. No, they're done. They're toasty. They are done. They're warm and toasty. You got four minutes and 25 seconds left to get this thing on the plate and ready to eat for our judge. Okay, I think I got two minutes left. Do you have a dip to go along with your golden crispy? I do. What is it? Ketchup. How original. Ketchup. There's a lot of creativity that goes in ketchup. All right, I mean once I know the judge, it's over. Let that do another 30 seconds on the back. Little sizzle. Got this thing in the bag. I've never done it. You basically got a spicy, sweet, Cajun, maple syrup, uh, Toe Boy. I might as well just add a pickle on it. You got everything going on you. You know, your oven just went off. Yep, it did. So I need to go check. Just left. Two minute warning. I need to get a fork and flake and see if this is done. I mean it's crappie, so it's not like chicken. It's not like chicken? Maybe it needs to go back in. I don't know. Over here in this corner. It's like a big shrimp. Champion of the world. My alarm is going off on my wrist. I've got 20 seconds. And that means it is time to plate your dish. It smells pretty good. Getting like the baked barbecue smell. I'm the worst fish cooker ever. I always have to ask you, family, you checked my fish for me. No, this is competition mode. I need the dub. Dang it. Can you make a catfish taste better than a crappie? Well I'm sure you can if you can fry it. Just waiting for the old judge to pull up. By the time these catfish cool off just a little bit it's going to be perfect. Can't you? Oh yeah. Now my presentation isn't going to be as good. Because it's kind of like when I wrap Christmas presents. Oh yeah. It's like a brown paper sack that's kind of like halfway. Actually you don't even go there. You give it to other people to wrap for you. Yeah, that's true. That's true story. Oh wow. That's some bonus points right there. Oh, pretty good. I mean it smells kind of like a barbecue chicken sandwich. It does. But are you going to be able to, I mean you've covered up maybe the best tasting fish out there. Actually we'll go with the offset. Offset presentation. Back to back caddies. Just had a little boo-boo here. A little snafu but look at the internals. Just beautiful white meat. Indication of a perfect crispy. First side presentation. Dipping sauce. We're going to go with classic sprouts. Not Heinz. Classic sprouts. Heinz. Heinz is hard to find. Bottled in certified 100% recyclable plastic. I just want a taste. A little swirl. And a little sputter at the end. Wabam. You're going to taste acid? I'm trying. Hey, there's no. It's already getting full. You can't make modifications. Timer's done. No more mods allowed. What will win the competition? The honey barbecue. Cajun. Sweet and spicy. Lightly toasted. Mildly soggy. Possibly not cooked all the way. Sandwich. Of the crappie. Or the classic. Golden crispy catfish with a little ketchup. While we're waiting on the judge, I think we should each take a bite of our, let's have a little sampling. And let's do some commentating on this. A little bit of ketchup if you'd like. Yours is like right next to me. It's burning my nostrils. You smell it? That was pretty good. That's lightly fried. It's like a perfect little crisp. Got a bone. Oh. Good. No. It's a good thing I didn't do that long. I think I overcooked it with a hair. You think so? I kind of like it a little crunchy. I don't like it when fried fish is kind of like mushy. It's the texture of the fish though. This one doesn't have much flavor. My mom's going to love it. Yeah, she is. Okay, let's try mine. Catfish is like meatier fish. It's more like chicken. You know, chicken. Is that cooked? I mean, yeah. Probably. Okay, you try. You try that. That was a lot of sandwich and not much fish. Well, it was a small little filet. Look at that. Still hot. The bun is a little soggy. I'm eating rid of the bun. That texture is a little weird. I'm tossing the bun. The crappie is so soft. It literally like melts into the bun. Yeah, I would agree with that. Which means it's probably not cooked. I don't think it's cooked. Okay, since Judd isn't here and it hasn't cooked all the way, OSG's putting it back in the oven. Points to Doug didn't. What? Meanwhile, the classic, it just keeps on kicking. Do you have any more of that? Yeah. No, I mean, like, do you have any more fish? Like, can you fillet some more fish? The only catfish right now. That's it? Okay, the great lady in the south is here, along with baby Emmy. You like some ketchup? Of course. It's a... Wait a minute. Let me taste for that. You want to taste without ketchup? Okay. Go for it. What are you experiencing right now? Crusty. Crusty? Crusty. That's your first notion. That's not a good decision. I thought it was a little overcooked myself, but... Okay, but now you're liking it. Some enjoyment. Well, you know I love catfish. I know you love catfish. Where's the next one? Okay. She's a tough critic. Dang. See, I didn't... I went low on the flavors. This next one's going to be full flavor. Okay. So these are two different species of fish, just so you know. Okay, this is like fresh out of the oven. No. We've baked this one a little bit longer again. Fish. We're going to do it without the bun this time. Fresh out of the oven. It's an interesting... So right, yeah. Our mysterious southern lady right now, she is making some odd faces. You think it's funny, too? First impressions here. Okay. The fish is bland. The sauce, um... Sauce tastes good. It's very hot. And flavor hot. And flavor hot. Yeah. I'm going to go with the first one. It's more of the southern... More of a front catfish. Yay, Daddy! Look, she's got this for you. Okay. Okay. It's going to be... I don't know if we did. I think I made the right one. As it turns out, fish and freaks, it is possible to make a catfish taste better than a grubby. I would like to point out OSG crushes every type of cooking. It's just that, you know, my fish game is just on point. And I still got some white bass in here. I got to go clean so we can have our actual dinner. A hot, fresh, crispy, a proper one. Thank you all for tuning in to today's cookoff. And let me know in the comments if you want to see more cookoffs of the OSG. And if you want to just see more from around here at the Treehouse, subscribe down below to the Lake Life Family Channel. And don't forget to keep it locked right here for adventures in outdoor greatness. Smash it, y'all. God bless you, and I'll see you on the next one.