Was my mother in laws birthday yesterday, she wanted seafood.... so we did a shrimp boil! My first boil all on my own, but I gotta say, it turned out great! We did one spicy boil, lots of Zatarains seasoning... and one mild boil with Oldbay seasoning. Spicy! It did have a kick, tasted awesome! Mild, had a great flavor:
Sure thing.... For the spicy boil: 60qt pot with strainer 1/3-1/2 full of water. Bring to a boil. Add: 73oz container of Zatarains dry crab and srimp boil season 16oz of Zatarains liquid crab and shrimp boil seasoning. 8 lemons halfed and juiced 6 oranges halfed and juiced 6 onions halfed 3 pods of garlic, skined Return to boil. Add: 10 or so small yellow potatoes 10 or so small red potatoes 6 lbs smoked sausage 2-3 lbs button mushrooms 6-8 ears of sweetcorn halfed Return to boil, boil for 10 minutes. Add 12-15 lbs shrimp. Return to boil, boil for 2 minutes. Turn off burner, add as much ice as pot will hold without over flowing. Let rests for 10 minutes. Remove strainer and contents, let set in strainer to drain for 5-10 minutes. Dump out on table and enjoy! This is a spicy boil, corn really packs a punch. For the mild boil: 30qt pot with strainer 1/3-1/2 full of water. Bring to boil. Add 6oz. Oldbay Seasoning for seafood [I'm going to up this to 16oz on my next batch] Return to boil. Add: 4 lemons halfed and juiced 3 oranges halfed and juiced 3 onions halfed 1 pod garlic skinned [I left this out by request of the birthday girl] Return to boil Add: 6-8 small yellow potatoes 6-8 small red potatoes 3lbs smoked sausage 1-2 lbs button mushrooms 3-4 ears sweetcorn halfed Return to boil, boil for 10 minutes. Add 8-10 lbs shrimp. Return to boil, boil for 2 minutes. Turn off burner, add ice to fill pot. Let set for 10 minutes. Remove strainer and contents, let set in strainer to drain for 5-10 minutes. Dump out and enjoy! This was very mild, and light on flavor... that's why I'm really going to up the amount of oldbay next time. This can be reduced to what you need to cook for, I fed around 20 people last night, with leftovers. [Awesome for po boys] Cooking time is key, don't over cook the shrimp. The ice is to slow the cook, and helps the shrimp meat suck in the seasoning.
Now that I'm at my computer, a couple of notes on these boils: 1. I used a 38,000 BTU turkey fryer burner for the 60qt pot, it was way, WAY to small, took over an hour to boil, and recovery time when adding ingredients was way to long in my book, almost 20 minutes when I added the shrimp. I will be ordering a 185,000 BTU burner before my next boil. I used a 30,000 BTU burner on the 30qt pot, it did much better, still took 45 minutes to boil, but recovery time was much faster. I'll try the 38,000 BTU burner with it, but I'm guessing a 60-80,000 BTU would be better. 2. I used to much water (I cut it back in the recipe above) both boils where chuck full after the shrimp, with minimal room for ice, I prefer like to add 5+ lbs of ice to each. only got a couple lbs in the 30qt boil. You can also spray the outside of the post with cold water to help slow the cooking. 3. I didn't know about the mushrooms, was suggested to me to try it.... I am very glad I did! In the spicy boil the mushrooms where amazing! I will add more the next time I boil (I reflected that above) When we where eating, we talked about saving some mushrooms to make fried mushrooms with.... but didn't have any leftovers to try it! 4. I'm an Iowa farm boy, we love sweet corn here.... The corn in the spicy boil really, REALLY sucked up the heat and spices, I didn't like it, some did... but when it comes to sweetcorn, I'm a traditionalist. Corn, Butter, Salt and Pepper... that's all I need. The mild boil corn was ok, but it still had the Old Bay seasoning in it... still wasn't a fan. Also, it's not sweetcorn season yet, so this was store bought corn, raised in an irrigation field (all water, no flavor... I ate part of a raw ear to see how it tasted, no sweetcorn flavor) If I had good fresh sweetcorn, I would not waste it in the boil, but if I do one in the off season again, I doubt I do it in a spicy boil (unless requested) But would do it in the mild. 5. The Lemons and Oranges are for flavor, cut in half, squeeze the juice in the post and chuck in the rest. Discard as you eat. That being said, a few guys tried the oranges from the spicy boil. They claimed them to have a good sweet/spicy flavor, with the texture of a squash... so try if you like! 6. You can alter a boil however you want, if you think it will taste good try it. I wanted to add snow crab legs, but with $180 of shrimp in there, I opted not to. You can add clams, muscles, crabs... I've seen cabbage, carrots and celery in boils. 7. I was really nervous about using frozen pealed and de-veined shrimp, I'm used to using fresh shell on shrimp. But I must say they where still good.... and so much easier to eat. If I was doing a boil for picy people like myself, I would only use the fresh shell on shrimp... But, when feeding a hungry crowd that just want to eat and drink, I would use these again. This was my first full on boil. Boil shrimp at deer camp every year, I took what I've learned from our Florida hunting buddy and researched boils on the net, along with picking his brain on them. I'm very happy with the out come. Oh one other thing.... it was in the upper 90's here on Saturday, with no wind, I' guessing a heat index of right at 100... it was hot, and with 68,000 BTU's burners at my feet, it got REALLY hot while cooking! I kept having people ask me if I was ok, we had 4 veterinarians in the crowd, and they kept a close eye on me. I could not get cooled down, even after it got dark, and they got a fan on me, I was still ringing with sweat. (heat from the spicy food played a part also, wow it was spicy, but soooo good) I've problem with over heating many times, this time I just kept sweating, so I wasn't to worried. But, it does get hot cooking these, I tend to keep close to the boil because the times are so short. Keep that and the temp in mind when planing these, I told everyone I wouldn't do it again in the heat like that, but had it been in the 70'seasoning I think I would have been fine.
These are awesome burners... I've got one for my beer brewing... Edelmetall Brü™ Burner : Northern Brewer
I like spicy, but my gut doesn't. .... My wife ain't crazy about it either. We're good with old bay...
Love those dinners, We do that once a year here for the extended family. Ours is coming up next month.
