Hosting a Lowcountry Boil

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As a South Carolina girl, hosting a lowcountry boil is something that’s been on my list for ages. Celebrating the Fourth of July seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

Lowcountry boils can include just about any type of shellfish. Shrimp, crawfish (or “crawdads” if you’re my husband), crabs, and even oysters can be the protein that’s steamed or boiled for that outdoor feast alongside potatoes, corn, and kielbasa sausage. And while you can certainly do this indoors, outside will save you the heartache of masking the seafood scent days later.

To get a lowcountry boil on your party menu, the first thing you need is a vessel. To be honest, it takes two vessels to make a lowcountry boil work: the one that catches your fresh seafood and the one that you use to cook your seafood. I found a giant All-Clad stock pot with steam basket and strainer basket that fit the bill for our boil. Make sure that your stock pot comes with a strainer basket. It should be about the size of the pot itself.

Keep in mind that your pot for the boil will need to hold the variety of vegetable and proteins that you choose AND still have room for the water and seasonings to cover your solid foods. You’ll also need a heating element to bring these foods to temperature. If you have a burner for a turkey fryer, for example, it may work for this event. A propane burner is another option and we found ours for less than $25. You could also use your stove inside but keep the windows open so your kitchen doesn’t retain that lovely scent. A sideburner on a grill may work as well.

With the cooking container and heating method selected, food was the next must-have. We decided to use fresh shrimp from the coast of North Carolina. These shrimp, fitting into the 16-20 range, were the perfect size for our boil – and size does matter when it comes to shrimp. If you’re unfamiliar with shrimp sizing, just remember that small numbers equal big shrimp since the range is an approximation of how many shrimp are in each pound. Shrimp in the 51-60 range, such as those often found in the frozen section of your grocery store, are perfect for salads, food processor-chopped shrimp burgers or seafood dips…but not so great for shrimp cocktail since they are quite small. Shrimp in the 16-20 or 21-25 range are large enough to impress your guests and small enough to cut costs (i.e. spend that on the tableware instead, of course).

With our “heavy four” pounds of shrimp (butcher speak for ‘overweight is preferred to underweight’ on the butcher’s scale) from the local seafood warehouse, we rushed home to get the shrimp on ice. We wanted leftovers from our shrimp boil (we served five); otherwise, we would have ordered closer to 1/2-3/4 pound of shrimp per person instead of closer to 1 pound per person. And when it comes to food stores, keep seafood very, very cold but not submerged in water. If you keep fish or shrimp in a cooler before an outdoor seafood event, monitor and replenish the ice frequently while keeping the water drained from the bottom. The cooler is also a great place to store your kielbasa and lemons, which are two of the seasonings you’ll need for the boil.

Heating element, stock pot, and shrimp chosen, the next step is to get your other food items ready. Our boil was shrimp, kielbasa, red potatoes, and corn, seasoned with lemons, seafood spice, and beer. Water, of course, is needed, too.

Once you have the pot of water on heat (fill the pot almost to the top, leaving room for the beer – i.e. your other liquids), add a few halves of lemons and your seasonings (a half-dozen tablespoons of crab/shrimp spice and a quartered onion). Bring those to boil and add your red potatoes. Think about 2-3 potatoes per person if they’re small, or 1-2 potatoes if they’re larger than a golf ball. Can you tell my Hubby helped with this post? Bring the water back to a boil and let it boil for about five minutes.

After five minutes of your potatoes in a seafood seasoning whirlpool, it’s time to add the kielbasa. Most of the time, this sausage is pre-cooked, so there’s no need to cook it before adding it to your boil. We chopped ours into slices that were 2-3 inches in length. The boil will heat the sausage and the sausage, in turn, will help flavor the water (and, ultimately, the shrimp). You can also opt for Andouille sausage for a little more heat. The sausage goes for about five minutes as well, bringing the cook time to 10 minutes so far.

With 10 minutes passed, it’s time to add the corn. We had roughly one ear of corn for each person, but cut them in half to better fit our pot. The corn – like the potatoes and sausage – gets added to the ever-growing lowcountry boil and cooks for five minutes as well.

Corn, sausage, and potatoes are ready to be eaten at this point. For all practical purposes, they are cooked and ready to be served. The last step (and a quick one at that) is to add those beautiful local shrimp.

Drop the shrimp into the boil, keeping an eye on a watch or clock. Unlike all the other food items, there is no need to bring the boil back to a…well…boil. The water will be hot enough to begin immediately cooking the shrimp. And shrimp are helpful in the cooking process since gray shrimp commonly found in the U.S. will turn pink when done.

Our shrimp cooked in a matter of minutes. Four minutes was all our four pounds needed, and the boil barely returned to a boil by the time we pulled the food from the pot. Keep in mind that the shrimp will continue to cook for a minute or two even if they’re off the heat, and if you’ve ever had rubbery overdone shrimp, you know exactly what you want to avoid in your lowcountry boil.

Our lowcountry boil was finished in less than 20 minutes from when the water first began to boil. It was a super quick and delicious (and pretty healthy, all things considered) dinner, and was a perfect fit to our July 4th festivities. The hands-on nature of the food coupled with an all-American sliced watermelon summer dessert made this a stress-free and filling holiday meal.

Thanks to my wonderful Hubby and family for helping with this post! #familyaffair