are there many or any places outside Wisconsin that Fish Boil?

Is that where you boil a bunch of fish? Then, No I haven’t. We call’em fish fries here. Where you fry a bunch of fish. Usually churches put them on and sell sandwiches with greens and cornbread or hush puppies. Yum!!!!

We have Low Country Boils. Generally consist of crawdads, shrimp, crab legs, sausage, corn on the cob, and red taters.

we have fish fries also , especially beer batter fish fry. many churches also put them on here. I used to work the fish fry at our old church.

I think boiling fish is a bit more of a unique Wisconsin thing I used to help my grandparents with their church fish boil , a great job for a kid tending fires and boiling fish.

boil in salted water about a cup of canning salt per 5 gallons water

traditional would be over a wood fire but I just use a high pressure LP burner

I use a 30 quart stainless steel pot on my outdoor lp burner the only seasoning in our traditional WI fish boil is salt.

typically served 1-2 pieces of fish depending on size , 2 potatoes and 2 onions , rye bread , coleslaw and cherry pie for desert.

although I have a extra liking for onions , when I helped Grandpa boiling the ladies in the serving line alwasy had extra onions and I would get an ice cream pail of the cooled onions , borrow a salt shaker and eat them like apples between boils.

this was a big fish, lake trout , fish prep is very minimal , gut and cut into sections.

when My great uncle ran fish tug we could get fresh white fish he still has connections and big family boils are white fish but home boils I mostly do trout caught from my dads boat on lake Michigan this was one fish

i had an aunt move to low country GA with the army and marry a guy down there , I have had low country boil it is similar to ours but you use a lot more spice.

my grandmother would say your mild is our hot.

Ah....fish boils and booyah. I prefer fish fries but a boil is more nostalgic. Pretty sure its more of a Scandinavian thing. The probably got tired of ludfysk.

For me, whether to boil or to fry would be dependent on the type of fish you have.
I prefer fried fish to eat, but boiled fish is likely better for you.

Fish stew-excellent.Ate a lot of it as a kid,with a big dollop of butter on top.

Our Town's Historical Society has a fish boil fundraiser every summer. It is this weekend. I much prefer fried but it is an interesting change of pace.

When my fishing buddies and I were broke when guiding slowed down in West Yellowstone and we'd spent our money on beer, gas, shotgun shells and other such things, we'd catch whitefish and boil chunks of them and dip them in butter with garlic. We called it poor man's lobster but it was great. I bet another Montana guy could chime in on this.

It beat the heck out of rice and pancake sandwiches.

Pete

funny you mention Booyah I have never had or been invited to a Booyah but my co-worker talks about them, but then she is from DePere and would have had much more of the Belgium influence.


As Danish and Icelander it was never a family thing but we had lots of fish boils and perch fries.


tonight dinner is fish soup I guess a Chowder since it has milk and sour cream. Fish boil left overs only take a little bit to make into a soup since everything is cooked it is just being warmed with some seasoning and the milk.

my great grand father was born 100% Icelander but in Lundar Manitoba there was a strong Icelandic settlement there , they fished Lake Manitoba for the lake whitefish there also as I understand it. then he made his way down to Wisconsin following an add for work in the Icelandic language news paper that circulated between the Icelander communities.

basically all fish boil is is boiled chunks of fish with butter

I love food and the micro culture around food.

what is so sad is that so much of that food culture is disappearing. some of it is being saved.

I like to get places and eat their local food , I don't get around as much as I would like.

we took a vacation to low country GA and SC we found one little seafood shack on Edisto island SC , bought clams and muscles to cook and had fried soft shell crab from the trailer out back.

I could go on a vacation just eating and fishing my way around the country.

One key thing wish fish boils is boiling the kettle over at the end to boil the gunk off...this is why wood is the best method.

Its a Wi. thing. I'd like to try some but I don't want to waste my fish if it sucks. lol Fish frys are terrific if done right, and I know how.

Not sure why a guy would do something like that. Must be a Wisconsin thing.

Those onions, coleslaw and cherry pie sound good though

Filleted big bluegill and boiled them in shrimp boil. Poor man's shrimp.

Boils are only in certain areas of wi. We do fish frys state wide in almost every bar and restaurant. Boils are also with whitefish for the most part. Never perch bluegill or walleye from I have seen. Those are for the frys.

I did a lot of boil overs as a kid , what 8 -14 year old kid wouldn't love the job of tossing a half pint of K1 on the fire. I used to run 5 pots at a time with my Grandpa for the church fish boil.

but with some experimenting my great Uncle figured out how to make it so no one could tell it was about clearing the scum and oil at the top of the pot

he put a 6 inch strainer on a 4 foot wood handle and skims the scum while standing around drinking beer watching the pot then at the end with his being in stainless baskets he made up that interlock when the metal rod is inserted to do the lift they are plunged up and down 2-3 times and lifted quickly and life long fish boil eaters who were skeptical at first can not tell the difference.


the lake trout don't seem to foam much but I do the same minus the long handle

restaurants in Door County obviously do the over boil for the show and authenticity.

When I was a GP in Ohio, along Lake Erie, there were quite a few people that had fish boils. We usually caught white bass when they were running in the lake. We pretty much did it exactly like Green Country Pete described. I had one of those aluminum boiler like he has in the photo, but ex-wife kept in a divorce and I never found another one to replace it. I used it a couple time with northern Pike and they came out well. The meat about fell off of the bones getting away from those terrible "Y" bones. Those were the good old days.

Garry-