Frogmore Stew Recipe and History, Whats Cooking America (2024)

FAQs

What is the history of Frogmore Stew? ›

So where did the funny name come from? (No, no frogs are in the stew.) The dish originated in a small Lowcountry fishing community on St. Helena Island named Frogmore, near Beaufort and Hilton Head. It's also sometimes called Lowcountry boil or Beaufort stew.

According to Trip Advisor, “Low Country Boil and Frogmore Stew is one and the same. Frogmore is a little area in SC between Savannah and Charleston. Typically it will consist of potatoes, Sausage, corn, onions and shrimp boiled in a crab boil season.

Frogmore stew (also known as Lowcountry boil, Beaufort stew, and tidewater stew) is a seasoned medley of boiled corn, shrimp, sausage, and potatoes. It's often cooked in beer.

The big one-pot meal was allegedly invented by Richard Gay, owner of a seafood company from a small town called Frogmore, who needed to make dinner for 100 of his fellow National Guard soldiers. He originally called it “Frogmore Stew” as homage to his hometown.

History of Frogmore Stew:

Beaufort historian, Gerhard Spieler believes that the recipe was the invention of local shrimpers who used whatever food items they had on hand to make a stew. Richard Gay of Gay Seafood Company also claimed to have invented Frogmore Stew.

The difference between Frogmore stew and Beaufort stew depends on who is doing the cooking. They are essentially the same dish, right along with seafood boil and tidewater boil. Some cooks add crab, crawfish, or scallops, but there is always corn, smoked sausage and potatoes.

The name and original recipe for the seafood-based dish is attributed to a local shrimper named Richard Gay, of Gay Fish Company, who is said to have coined the name in the 1960's after his hometown, Frogmore, a small community on St. Helena Island, South Carolina.

Frogmore Stew is a traditional Lowcountry dish made with four primary ingredients: shrimp, corn on the cob, new potatoes, and smoked sausage. It's often referred to as a shrimp boil recipe because everything boils in a zesty liquid that's flavored with seafood seasoning (in this case Old Bay).

ANSWER: Waxy potatoes or those called boiling potatoes stand up well in soups and stews. These have thin skin and are high in moisture and low in starch.

noun. (= food) ragoût m.

Why do they call it stew? ›

The root of stew is the Old French estuver, "bathe or stew." Back in the fourteenth century, stew was also a slang word meaning "brothel or bath house." thick stew made of rice and chicken and small game; southern U.S.

The origins of Irish stew are somewhat shrouded in mystery, but it's believed to have originated in the 17th or 18th century. At that time, the dish was often made by shepherds and rural farmers who had access to only a few ingredients but needed a nourishing meal to sustain them through long days of work.

One of the oft-overlooked proteins in seafood boils is eggs. These are great as they help soak up the flavors and thus add more flavor to the meal. You can boil the eggs at any point during the cooking process. Adding them towards the end helps, ensure they get all of the right flavors from other ingredients.

They tend to be a bit milder than their Louisiana cousins. For example, it is not unusual for a Lowcountry recipe to call for a mixture of hot and mild boil seasonings, whereas a Louisiana recipe may start with crab boil packets and add large amounts of cayenne pepper.

The origins of Irish stew are somewhat shrouded in mystery, but it's believed to have originated in the 17th or 18th century. At that time, the dish was often made by shepherds and rural farmers who had access to only a few ingredients but needed a nourishing meal to sustain them through long days of work.

In Japan, the restaurant Otaf*cku in the Asakusa district of Tokyo serves a stew called oden, which has been replenished constantly since 1945. The only reason it doesn't date back until 1916, when the restaurant opened, is said to be because that soup was lost in a World War II air raid.

The states of Virginia and Georgia both claim its birth, with Brunswick County in Virginia and the city of Brunswick in Georgia claiming it was developed there. It may have originated earlier in some form in the city of Braunschweig (English: Brunswick) in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in today's northern Germany.