Ever wanted to make your own Wakulla County Seafood Boil? Here’s a great recipe from David Moody about how to make a lowcountry-style boil.
- 16 pounds (~26 count)head on/or off (Whites or Hoppers from local waters)
- 4 pounds of local smoked sausage(Fasons, Limestone, or Registers)
- 4 pounds of “B” size local red potatoes
- 2 pounds regular Carrots, trimmed at ends, diced in 3-inchsections on bias
- 2 pounds Button Mushrooms (White or Portabello)
- 2 heads of Cauliflower, broke into palm sized florets
- 1 dozen peeled boiled eggs
- 28-ounce container of salt
- 6 Bay Leaves
- 6 Yellow Onions, peeled, cut in quarters
- 5 ribs of Celery diced
- 4 whole heads on Garlic, cut in half
- 6 Lemons cut in half
- ½ Cup Zattatarans Liquid Crab Boil
- 2 tsp ground red pepper
- 48 half ears of frozen corn
- 2 rutabagas
To start with, boiling seafood is a chemistry project not to be taken lightly. Potato doneness is the limiting factor of the whole boil! Get started with filling a 15 or 20-gallon pot with 5 gallons of water. Add salt, bay leaves, squeezed lemons, celery, garlic, red pepper and simmer for 30 minutes. All lemon oils should release and flavor and the water should taste quite salty with a good red pepper aftertaste. Bring water to a rolling boil, add the crab boil and potatoes, and set a timer for 15-25 minutes, depending on potato size. Add sausage with 14 minutes left, add carrots with 10 minutes left, add mushrooms and rutabagas with 6 minutes left(cut a potato for doneness now-add time as necessary), add cauliflower with 5 minutes left, add shrimp with 2 minutes left. Test shrimp doneness, shell comes off easily (don’t overcook). Stir in frozen corn to drop the temperature(stop shrimp from overcooking) and add ice if still too hot. Add boiled eggs. Soak for a full 30 minutes, drain, serve. This whole process takes about 1.5 hours.
