Give me some ideas on how you southerners do a seafood boil. Son is coming home from the chesapeake tomorrow with crabs, clams and buying shrimp. Have done them before but looking for expert advice. Might make the crabs seperate. My grandpa lived on the western eastern shore and I have his crab steam recipe using O.J. seasoning and other spices and I've never had any better. Thanks

I'm admittedly not a southerner, but I've learned through the years how I like Dungeness, snow crab, king crab, spot prawns, sea cucumbers, octopi, urchins, and others. Far as I'm concerned, they need to be cooked in seawater from whence they came.

Jack.

Jack, now I am hungry. And you are so correct about the water used to prepare them . Thats hard to do, but makes the meal so special. And naturally salted.

I miss the seafood prepared for our Old Time Fiddle/Newgrass band down in FLA. We would play at a local restaurant and they would fix up the most amazing variety of seafood , serving it piled high on platters to us , on a long table as we played. The place would be packed with folks enjoying the music , and the cost of them serving us with such food , was more than tripled paid back to them in a packed house full of customers.

Around here, we use shrimp, corn, potatoes, and smoke sausage, with old bay and salt for seasoning.

If you have the right steamer pots and the know how, it's always better to do them as YOU like. Steam each separately, or grill the shrimp, clams can be eaten raw if you want. Too many ways to enjoy seafood! :-)

Does anyone throw whole blue crabs in with a seafood boil. Already have the andoulle deer sausage, corn and potatoes. Usually takes 2 bushels of crabs to feed our whole family and it looks like my son will not quite have a whole bushel til he gets done crabbing today. That's the reason I want to do a boil to stretch the seafood.

Yes you can use crabs, remember to put potatoes in first, being they take the longest to cook, then you can add the crabs and sausage, and the corn last.

Boiled crabs taste like crap and soggy, Steam them!

My first question is are you the type that wants your food seasoned or the type that " I don't want anything masking the natural flavor of (insert food). If your the second just toss whatever in the steamer or boil in some water with some old bay i guess.....
Now if your the first though

Crab legs, shrimp, sausage, crawdads, red taters, sweet corn on the cob in the pot with Zatarain’s crab boil!

Read that as I want flavor with a kick or wuss.

Put me solidly in the with a kick camp.

Lemons you want lemons in the boil. Onion you want onion in the boil. Garlic, whole bulbs. Creole seasoning, not old bay, and the whole can. Make sure to use a quality sausage that isn't mostly fat or your boil will end up greasy, it should also be a larger grind like an andoille so it doesn't cook to a mush and have the spice to hold up as well. Nothing ruins a boil like a mushy flavorless sausage.

It will be seasoned. I make my own type of old bay type seasoning. Start with O.J. seasoning then add Lots of smoked cayenne pepper from the garden, lots of celery seed, paprika and mustard seed too. Has a good kick. That is for steaming crabs in equal parts apple cider vinegar, beer and salt water. I guess it will be ok to use that in the water for a boil. Andoulle sausage is 40% pork, 60% venison so it's not greasy. Adding lemons and onion to the water sounds like a good idea.

I would never cook shrimp along with crabs. Shrimp cook much faster, and just get rubbery if overcooked. I boil my shrimp, as soon as they float take them off the heat, let sit a minute or less and then drain.

Wanna Be and Warrior hit it dead on.

Stagger what goes in so nothing is overcooked. I’ve never done clams, but certainly crab and shrimp together. Shrimp should be the very last thing. I generally turn off the fire when everything else is done like I want it and then put in the shrimp. More than enough heat to cook them and still have everything hot.

If you’re not 100% sure on how stiff you’d like your boil seasoning, you can always go a little lighter and add it on dry after the cooking to your taste.

Salt. Most of the seafood seasonings have plenty of salt but if you go light on the seasonings you may end up under salted. Under salted seafood is one of the 7 southern deadly sins.

This is how i do mine and take some liquid out for steaming the clams in another pot when i put the shrimp in as they take about the same amount of time and then i don't boil the clam taste away.

If you need a filler throw in a couple dozen eggs.

Bay leaves, forgot to mention that. I guess bay leaf is so common down here its like saying you need water for a boil.

Don’t over season or overcook your seafood - period. Not a big fan of the seafood boil recipe.

My favorite clam technique is to place them in a frying pan with a half inch of water or less. Cook on high covered. Once they begin to open, remove the lid and take open clams out of the pan with tongs. Keep adding clams and removing open clams. Place the open clams on the plates of your guests. Serve with drawn butter with a little garlic. Beer is required as well. Clams must be little neck or top neck - not chowders.

Haha, true!! I told my wife her Spaghetti sauce was missing something once and she said she didn’t have any Bay Leaves.

Crabs are for steaming, shrimp are for boiling, clams can be done many ways.

Had a family get together Sunday. I use JO spice #2 , crabs cooked perfectly in 30 mins. Inch of liquid in the bottom of the steam pot, half water and half apple cider vinegar ( don’t waste a beer please ). Layer the crabs with seasoning, pour it on thick. I use about 2 cups dry seasoning ( JO ) per steamer full. Put a brick on top or you’ll have crabs crawling everywhere - trust me. Steam 30 minutes and take the top off the steamer when finished to let the heat escape - leaving the lid on will over cook them.

While that’s steaming , get a shrimp boil going. Water, vinegar, plenty old bay or JO seasoning, sliced onions sliced lemons. Little more seasoning, then some more. Bring to a boil, add shrimp. Don’t add too many to cool the water, handful at a time. Take them off when they float, 5-7 min depending on the boil. Shell should peel off easy

Clams can be done many ways. Sunday we did casinos so I’ll share that one. Slice the clam in half. We use a home made clam-wammer. A dull knife and hammer will do. Open the clam, the clam will be cut in half. Half the meat on one shell and the other half on the other. Use a smaller knife to loosen the meat from the shell. Lay the opened clams on a baking sheet , don’t drain the liquid outta the shell. To each clam, Add bread crumbs ( about half a small spoon full ) , dash of worcestershire , pinch of cheddar cheese , small piece of bacon , drop of hot sauce. Bake on 400 for 15 min, or until the tops are browned. Can broil to speed the browning up.

Serve the crabs , shrimp and clams to a hungry crowd, and listen to the great stories told around the table

Boil was a success. Corn, potatoes, clams and sausage were excellent. Shrimp and crabs were so so. Not enough seasoning got into the shrimp and crabs. Crabs definately a lot better steamed with JO. Next time if we have more crabs will steam seperately.

How did you end up doing your boil?

Homemade old bay type seasoning with lots of my homemade smoked cayenne powder, added potatoes first, then sausage, few minutes added crabs and corn then clams, at end added shrimp. Added lemons, bay leaves and onion to boiling water first. Crabs were a little mushy compared to steamed and not seasoned enough. Just had leftover potatoes, corn and shrimp and they were seasoned well. Tried to post a picture of pile after I dumped it out on the table, but it wouldn.t upload.

Like I said if we had more crabs they would be steamed with my grandpas recipe with added spices to the JO. Steamed in vinegar, water and beer. He always Natty Bo on tap and eating crabs was about the only time I could drink it.