they like to soak theirs in lye on that side of the river.

I started working fish boil pots about 8 years old with my grandpa , serve around 450-500 people running boils all afternoon. for a church fund raiser.
my great uncle would meet him half way with the coolers of fish that morning coming down from Door county.

we ran 5 pots 4 boil and one to make recovery water. they had a 3 quart sauce pan bolted to broom handle so that you could dip and carry the boiling water down the line of pots and refill the pot that had just boiled and had the baskets removed.
I liked fire so I was good keeping all those pots stocked with wood.
kept the pots full of new hot water so that when a line started to form we could boil.
after a little while they let me do all the over boils as well , had a pint mason jar with a handle that was filled a bit over half way with #2 walk past quickly and toss the fuel not the jar and keep moving

fist time I ever bought fuel by myself they sent me over to the gas station to buy 50 cents worth of #2 diesel it was about a half mile walk from the fair grounds shed where we served the fish boil , I had the 50 cents and the fuel can.
I was so nervous I was going to get 51 cents worth and all I had was 50. I was probably about 10. I landed it right on 50 click click click click click till I hit 50
that was a little easier to do when it was only a dollar a gallon or a little under
I had plenty of experience with a pump I filled my moms car all the time but she always wanted if full and I never had to pay.

I was a big onion fan myself , the number of people who didn't want their onions was crazy the ladies would put the extra onions that didn't go in a ice cream pail and I could eat as many as I wanted while tending pots.

good times almost all the old guys running the fish boil were WWII vets including my grandpa.

tend fires , eat onions and after they were done serving eat all the pie I could that was left over.

fish chowder is what you make with the fish that is left over from the fish boil.

Boil all of it in frying oil

We have done the ice bath also. Can't go wrong it is so good. I just past this recipe on to a client who fished with me Sunday. I hope she tries it.

Thanks everyone. I'll have to try boiling some fish.

Greencountypete, thanks for all the information. I really like your cauldrons made from the washing machines.

Dan Barnhurst, thanks for the recipe. Your chowder looks very good.

Tatiana, I like the look of your soup too.

J. Staton, I'm going to try the boiled bluegill fillets dipped in cocktail sauce, cooked with Capt. Scott's method. Bluegill are the most abundant, easy to catch fish near here.

Keith

that is my cousins set up he inherited from my great uncle his dad

I inquired once I was an adult about what happened to the 5 pots I tended as a kid that my grandpa had made for the church.
never could get an answer I wanted to buy one. since they hadn't used them in years.
I use a 30 liter tamale steamer pot on a LP burner myself it works it looks like a mid sized aluminum garbage can

before my great uncle Bill left the shipyard he made those LP burners in the picture under the pot

if you can cook with LP it opens up where you can cook to anyplace with a patch of gravel or dirt . LP also made a lot less soot on everything so clean up and transport was easier

we found skimming foam with a sieve in a wood handle while the fish was cooking and dunking the baskets up and down a few times cleared as much oil as the overboil did

I do the same on a smaller scale using a spider to lift the fish , potatoes and onions from the pot

my great uncle would take his fish boil setup on the road to whatever family member wanted to host the fish boil , a big cooler , the pot , 2 LP tanks and the burner and a tin folding table to serve on all fit fine in his truck he usually had a smaller truck ran a 1982 C10 for a lot of years put 2 bodies on it.