Low Country Boil thoughts

McCracken

McCracken

Logan Can't See This
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Location
With your mom at a nice seafood dinner
We're probably going to do one this Sunday. I've had some that were god and some that were "meh". I know Old Bay is a must but any tips / tricks for folks that don't have a whole lot of experience with it? The last one we did was good but it had a touch of the "meh". Are you looking for the flavors of the big items (corn, sausage, shrimp, etc) to pull it through?
 
Don't forget small whole potatoes!
 
Stage the ingredients. I.e, don't put the shrimp in with the potatoes or they will be overcooked.


We add a nice white wine with ours, sweetens the flavor a little.

We peel our shrimp as it tends to pick up the seasoning better and tastes better.

We add about 1/2 lb butter to our boil

We mix the types of sausage up. Be sure to use good sausage.

We add lots of garlic

We sometimes add muscles or crab legs to mix it up

Use as small of red potatoes as you can find. Cut up if necessary

Add salt to the water for better boiling and tasty veggies.

Don't forget to include beer in the water for flavor

If you can find mud bugs, add them with the shrimp!
 
rockcity said:
Stage the ingredients. I.e, don't put the shrimp in with the potatoes or they will be overcooked.


We add a nice white wine with ours, sweetens the flavor a little.

We peel our shrimp as it tends to pick up the seasoning better and tastes better.

We add about 1/2 lb butter to our boil

We mix the types of sausage up. Be sure to use good sausage.

We add lots of garlic

We sometimes add muscles or crab legs to mix it up

Use as small of red potatoes as you can find. Cut up if necessary

Add salt to the water for better boiling and tasty veggies.

Don't forget to include beer in the water for flavor

If you can find mud bugs, add them with the shrimp!
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Agreed on the timing. That we're pretty good about but I guess it was the lack of salt that got me. The potatoes were awfully blah last time. Thanks for the wine and butter tip.
 
We have a chic at work that does this every year for ACC tourney. She does it all in one 30 qt. aluminum pot on propane. It's definitely an art until you've done it a few times. Here's what I saw her do.

Carrots first then soon after add the potatoes. Then the corn. Then the sausage. Then the shrimp 2-3 minutes before pulling. Lay down news paper on a table and throw it down. She's done it quite a few times and was able to replenish us time after time by just using her watch. She also had a neat tool to de-vane the shrimp.
 
^^^ Yes! She has done it a few times then. That's exactly how we used to do it in Charleston. Dump it out on a table and everybody dig in! And goes great with oysters too.
:bounce:
 
@shawn may remember some details better than I, but we made a big pot for my nephew's sip & see (baby shower after the baby is born, in case you were wondering). The shrimp still had shells but were deveined, which I think gets the added flavor of the shells but let's the Old Bay and other flavors get underneath. We threw in a bunch of frozen shrimp, at my dad's insistence, but won't do that again.

I've never used or had it with carrots. We poured melted butter and lemon juice over it when we dumped it out.

Everything Rob said is pretty spot on, I think he knows his Frogmore Stew. ;)
 
Best I've ever had was at our wedding rehearsal dinner at Bowen's Island in Folly Beach :rockon: . A few tips I got from the salty dawgs there:

Use just as much water as you need to cover the ingredients, too much water will kill some of the flavor.

Use fresh ingredients! Make sure all ingredients are at room temp.

They used cracked black pepper, along with Old Bay. Add before and after all ingredients.

When cooking the shrimp, boil everything else, kill the flame on the burner, THEN add the shrimp for a couple of mins.

Personally, I like to use less spices and use spicy sausage for flavor. My wife likes the spices(Old Bay) over the spicy sausage. Something else I have found that makes a difference is using a cast iron pot vs. aluminum/SS.
 
RobMcBee said:
I got a lil alligator sausage left over if you want to toss some in there.
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I don't think it would be here in time. We want to do it this Sunday.
 
andouille sausage was cut into slices in the last one i had and it was spectacular!!
i also prefer Zaterains to Old Bay (just a different flavor)and i use Hillshire Farm Polska Kielbasa sausage
Seafood Boils
 
Andouille sausage. I like any excuse to eat it. I think the biggest mistake that people make is to not use really good quality sausage, which is a make-or-break thing just like fresh seafood.
 
mbalbritton said:
or Chorizo!
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BOTH.

I agree with much of what ha been stated above and I'll add...

Fresh Sliced lemons not lemon juice
Fresh Shrimp, I like them veined but not peeled.
I add enough cayene pepper to make your eyes water and add it early and again dash right before dumping it.
A well seasoned pot will help more than a fresh one.

Hrmmm...let me find some pics of the last one we did. It fed a few folks
 
jeepyj1129 said:
I always use coach's low country seasoning with old bay
Coach's Low Country™ Brands you can get it at BI-LO
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This. Once steve and I found coach's it was on. I haven't bought old bay in years. How are you supposed to make a SC dish with new england seasoning? Only thing I haven't seen posted is onion and celery. I put it in first so they dissolve in the pot.
 
And I vote shells on deveined. I season the shrimp in a bowl, shake, refridgerate until time to add em to the pot.
 
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