Catfish Compition (Yes, Catfish)

During the Terrell event, there were some folks handing out flyers for a Catfish Comp at Lake Tawokoni. We decided to give it a shot along with Tony and Shelia. The morning started off early but it was a Beautiful day by the lake. We each turned in two entries. Our attempt at Catfish included a Gumbo version and classic Fried. Tony & Shelia turned in a Shrimp Creole and a Creamy Butter Sauce over lightly seasoned and pan seared filets. Tony's Cream Butter Sauce entry was the only one to hit as he got a 6th call. After wards, we had plenty of food and began to serve the crowd gathering while we cooked. Don't worry, we will be back to BBQ this coming weekend.

Catfish Gumbo:
Filets cooked in Chicken,Crawfish and Shrimp Gumbo











Fried Catfish Filets: Breaded with Lousianne's and seasoned with Tony's.







Shelia's Shrimp Creole covering two pan grilled filets.












Tony's Cream Butter Sauced over two pan grilled, seasoned filtes.

New Addition

The idea of building a clone of the commercial Big Drum Smoker was discussed by Tony and myself. Tony found drums for the right price in West Dallas. We picked two weeks ago Saturday to start our build. Me and Melissa went to get 4 of them. We got the lids cut off, air valves on and handles attached that day. We still had to build a charcoal basket and add the brackets for the cooking grate. I completed this with Melissa's help the following Saturday. Cooked some chicken breasts and thighs to see how it performed.


These cookers are desiged as low/direct cooking vessels. As opposed to low/indirect like the trailered pit. When the meat cooks, the fat and juices drip down into the charcoal basket with wood. This imparts a different flavor from an offset cooker as the steam coming back up has the meat flavor from the drippings. I used a few pounds for the first run and it held at 225*-250* with no adjusting. Ideal for cooking BBQ. 10lbs of charcoal loaded up will run for 10-12 hours unattended. Here are a few pictures.