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John's Journal... Entry 170, Day 5

GIGGING A SUCKER

Divorce Biscuits for Dessert

EDITOR'S NOTE: One of the most-unique ways of taking fish in many states is gigging. Although some fishermen will curl their lips and stick up their noses at the thoughts of taking fish with a gig, more than likely these same fishermen have never been sucker gigging. In many areas of the country, gigging and eating suckers have a long and illustrous history. But I know of nowhere in the nation where the sport has evolved to a higher level than on the Current River in southeast Missouri. This week we will look at sucker gigging and learn, why, when, how and where folks go into the black night in aluminum boats with gigs to take suckers.

After a night of gigging suckers on the Current River, there is nothing better than eating a potato sandwich, suckers fried-up golden brown and having fried divorce biscuits with apple butter for dessert. But before I tell you about the divorce biscuits for dessert, I need to explain that once the sucker fillets have properly been scored and dusted with fine cornmeal and seasoning, they are dropped into the hot oil and allowed to cook until done. You can tell when a sucker fillet is done because it will float to the surface of the grease and begin to curl up like an accordion that has been bent over backwards. The meat between each scoring will open up, and the fillet will curl, often taking on the shape of a doughnut. As the fish come out of the grease, the giggers will begin to feast on the suckers they have taken that night. Fried potatoes and onions flank either side of the sucker fillet with a big puddle of ketchup right in the middle.

As I said earlier, however, the sucker cooking has almost a ritualistic timetable. Each course is presented in its turn, the first course being the potato sandwich, which is usually eaten before and during the cleaning and filleting the fish. Once the fish are cleaned and filleted, another group of anglers begins to batter the fillets while Kyle cooks the fillets. There are still plenty of potatoes and onions sitting in cardboard boxes to eat while the fillets are being cooked. Once the fillets come out of the oil and are dumped into their own cardboard box, Kyle immediately begins the process of frying the divorce biscuits. For city folks who are not acquainted with divorce biscuits, these biscuits are what divorced men buy in the grocery store that have a whole wrapper all the way around them. On the side of the wrapper there is usually a yellow tab that says, "pull here to open." Once you get the foil wrapper off the can of biscuits, you whop them on the side of a table, and the cardboard cylinder that holds the biscuits erupts. Inside the cylinder are ready-made biscuits.

Divorced men who don't have wives at home to make their biscuits in the morning, and because no man really wants to go to work without having sausage, biscuits and gravy, a divorced man has to buy these kind of biscuits instead of having his wife make the real kind. Taking a divorce biscuit out of its containers and cutting each biscuit in half forms it into a little ball. Then Kyle drops it into the hot grease where the onions, potatoes and fish were cooked. While the sucker giggers are finishing off their main course, the divorce biscuits are turning a golden brown in the big iron skillet. Once the biscuits reach the proper color and have floated for just the right time, they are removed from the grease, piping hot like a hush puppy. But instead of being dipped in ketchup like you dip hushpuppies, divorce biscuits are covered with apple butter -- a delicious sweet treat that makes the divorce biscuit one of the finest river bank desserts you will ever eat.

If I'm going to tell the truth about sucker gigging and the night I gigged suckers with Alex Rutledge and the Black brothers, I have to admit there was one fly in the ointment. Many of the sucker giggers finished the main course a little bit earlier than what Kyle had predicted they would. Of course this is natural because the divorce biscuit with apple butter is the main event of the sucker-gigging feast. "Let's have some of those fried biscuits," the sucker giggers demanded. "If you take those biscuits out to early they are going to be doughy inside," Donald Black warned. But yielding to the pressure of the giggers Kyle pulled out the first batch of biscuits before they were thoroughly done. However, because of their vast experience with riverbank cooking, Kyle and Black immediately broke the hot divorce biscuits in half. After seeing they were doughy in the middle, they dropped them back in the oil to cook for about another three minutes. This procedure rectified the potential disaster that loomed over the dessert and put the tradition back in place. They tasted like a gift from the gods as fine as any jelly-filled doughnut you have ever had at Krispy Kreme. If you have never been sucker gigging, I strongly recommend you consider a sucker-gigging trip to Birch Tree, Missouri. Be sure and take your camera and a big appetite because you will have a feast to remember for the ages. I really believe these Missouri sportsmen have discovered a great sport and a delicious-eating fish that the rest of us have completely overlooked.

If you want to learn more about gigging suckers on the Current River, you can contact Donald Black at P.O. Box 217, Van Buren, Missouri, 63965 or (573) 323-4033.

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about GIGGING A SUCKER ...

Day 1 - Sucker-Gigging Season
Day 2 - Sucker-Gigging Equipment
Day 3 - The Styles of Gigging
Day 4 - Cooking and Eating Suckers
Day 5 - Divorce Biscuits for Dessert


John's Journal