You can get into hour-long conversations about batters and breading in the South. But the quick 101 download is this: Batters are liquid mixtures of flour, eggs, and milk or water, and breadings are dry ingredients used to coat fish, such as cracker crumbs, bread crumbs, flour, or corn meal. And there’s only one main rule to always keep in mind: Batter first, fry, then bread. Oh, and when it comes to catfish, you can never go wrong with corn meal for your breading.