“There's no frogs on this stew,” says Lavern Meggett, laughing. A daughter of the Gullah Geechee matriarch and best-selling creator Emily Meggett, Lavern and her siblings now proceed their mom's culinary legacy, typically whereas internet hosting occasions on the distant island the place they grew up, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.
“Right here's what my mother would say: Everyone would come over after a protracted week of labor, and sit all the way down to a meal. It is extra like a Saturday factor for us, not a Sunday dinner. We lived proper by the creek, the place we might fish for the shrimp and crabs. The household grew potatoes and corn, too. And when all people confirmed up, she boiled up an enormous pot of Frogmore stew. It introduced the household collectively, sitting round that pot and consuming collectively.”
In line with the meals historian Joseph E. Dabney, creator of The Meals, Folklore and Artwork of Lowcountry Cooking, the origin story of this one-pot meal is centered on a fishing neighborhood often known as Frogmore, on St. Helena Island in Port Royal Sound. The best way he tells it, a shrimper named Richard Homosexual, whose household owns the Gay Fish Company, reportedly served dinner for his Nationwide Guard unit on the Beaufort Armory someday within the Nineteen Sixties, dumping chow corridor leftovers in a large stockpot, after which including fresh-caught shrimp for good measure throughout the previous few minutes of the boil. (Members of Homosexual's household nonetheless promote wild-caught native shrimp and crabs at their market on St. Helena.)
Nevertheless, this communal boiled dinner actually has deeper roots in North America—indigenous tribes alongside the Atlantic seaboard ready seafood and corn with different greens in pots over open fires lengthy earlier than Europeans arrived. Then the Gullah Geechee folks, descendants of enslaved Africans, introduced their love of seasoning to the dish, with the addition of cayenne and smoked sausages. (The Meggetts swear by Roger Wood hyperlinks.)
Everybody has a distinct title for it, however the Frogmore stew served on the Meggett's home on Edisto Island stays true to the one Miss Emily cooked for her weekend company. “Folks name it Lowcountry boil or Beaufort stew, or a crab boil, crab crack, and add no matter they need,” says Marvette, one other Meggett daughter. “You will discover various things to toss in, nevertheless it's not a Frogmore stew.”
Her sister Lavern agrees. “Some members of the family will add issues like broccoli, neck bones, eggs. However mother made it the unique approach, she didn't jazz it up.”
The classic recipe for Frogmore stew is straightforward sufficient to recollect: potatoes, corn, sausage, and shrimp, cooked with seasoning in boiling water. However there are many elective additions.
“Prior to now this was a ‘clear out your fridge' meal,” says Hope Barber, of Bowens Island Restaurant close to Folly Seashore. “I've seen folks even put boiled peanuts in there. One time we added littleneck clams. However our model is primary. We shuck all our personal corn, and add an onion and a lemon to the boil.” The restaurant additionally sources their shrimp and seasoning combine regionally.
The Meggetts recall their mom catching blue crabs with a rooster neck tied to a string, and throwing a solid web for the tiny white shrimp that swim within the tidal waterways that outline the Carolina Lowcountry's ACE Basin. Novices who wish to discover ways to crab the old-school approach can be part of Tia Clark, an environmental activist and coastal protector, throughout her Casual Crabbing expeditions. Or, if you happen to'd reasonably let different folks do the heavy lifting, eating places and fish markets from Myrtle Seashore on all the way down to Beaufort supply their variations of Frogmore stew.
On Pawleys Island, Harrelson's Seafood has a ready-to-go, boil-in-a-bag dinner. In Charleston, CudaCo Seafood House sells briny brown shrimp off the boats based mostly within the fishing village of McClellanville, suited to face out in one-pot dishes like jambalaya, gumbo, and Frogmore stew. Throughout the late season, they generally show delicate pink shrimp, that are a uncommon deal with, however all Carolina shrimp style sweeter than their Gulf cousins, as a result of they feed off spartina grass in cooler waters. Bowens Island Restaurant provides diners their stew with a view of the docks. (However it doesn't embrace crab.)
Whereas Miss Emily used to interrupt down her stay blue crabs by pouring scorching water over their backs when cleansing them, her daughters recommend simply throwing them entire within the pot with out this step, to keep away from being pinched. What's actually essential to learn about this feed-a-crowd dish is find out how to serve it. “Simply take the pot, drain it, and dump every thing on the picnic desk, on prime of some brown or newspaper,” says Lavern. “Then eat together with your palms.”
The beneath recipe is tailored from Emily Meggett's cookbook, ‘Gullah Geechee House Cooking.' For an additional traditional tackle Frogmore stew, try Discover South Carolina's Frogmore stew recipe.
