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Learn more about the South’s lowcountry cuisine, which has long focused on making much from little, reducing waste, and using whatever’s available, including heritage grains.
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RECIPE: Lowcountry Boil
- Yield: Serves 12 1x
Ingredients
- 4 lbs small red potatoes
- 5 qts water
- 1 3–oz bag of crab boil seasoning
- 4 Tbsps Old Bay seasoning
- 2 lbs of kielbasa or hot smoked link sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 6 ears of corn, halved
- 4 lbs large fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined (optional)
- Cocktail sauce
Instructions
- Add potatoes to a large pot, and then add the water and seasonings. Cover the pot and heat to a rolling boil. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the sausage and corn, and return to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
- Add shrimp and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until shrimp turn pink. Drain well and dump the pot onto a newspaper-covered picnic table.
Notes
Make sure that all the shrimp you use is sustainably caught. From North Carolina to the Florida Keys, you can check the “Good Catch Partner” listings to see what’s local and what’s sustainable. Nationally, take a look at the Local Catch Network to find local seafood.
Pescatarian and Vegan Adaptations
Leave out the sausage to make this pescatarian, and consider replacing shrimp with a firm white fish such as cod, crab legs, or mussels. Vegans can opt for firm tofu, king oyster stems, or both.
So, Should We Be Eating Shrimp?
For years, shrimping (therefore, shrimps) has had a (well-earned) reputation as an environmental villain. Shrimp operations routinely destroy mangrove forests and have had high rates of bycatch (that is, pulling up other creatures not intended for consumption). For more than 20 years, shrimpers have been using Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) to allow sea turtles to escape the trawl nets. According to Sea Turtle Conservancy, “It appears that indigenous knowledge and traditional field biology played a part in TED development. According to one source, it was a collaboration between a biologist at Cumberland National Seashore near the Georgia–Florida Border and a legendary netmaker from Nassau County, Florida, that yielded the refinements to the TED design that accommodated the sea turtle’s innate biological instinct to push up from the net to escape. … NOAA conferred its 2000 ‘Environmental Hero’ award on third-generation netmaker Billy Burbank.”
While TEDs have now been widely adopted by shrimpers in the Gulf and the lowcountry and are credited with having reduced sea turtle bycatch by more than 95%, the Monterey Seafood Watch still advises buying shrimp that has been harvested in the U.S., and buying only shrimp that has been green- or yellow-rated. Most shrimp (87%) caught from North Carolina to Texas are yellow-rated. Monterey has a sustainable shrimp guide here.
Then, there’s the substitutions: For many low-country dishes, such as Frogmore stew, pescatarians can substitute the shrimp for crab legs, lobster tails, mussels, or a firm white fish such as cod. Vegans or vegetarians can use king oyster mushroom stems, hearts of palm, or firm tofu.
