The Door County Fish Boil

If you happen to find yourself in Door County, Wisconsin (up the coast a ways from Sheboygan), you may hear people talking about something called a "fish boil."  I am here today to explain to you what this thing is, and to help you decide whether or not to participate.

Legend has it that over a hundred years ago, the settlers (largely Scandinavian lumberjacks and lake fishermen) needed a way to efficiently prepare a lot of food to feed a lot of hungry laborers, and the resulting technique has been passed down ever since as a local tradition, one that attracts locals and tourists alike.

It starts with a giant kettle of salted, boiling water, perched over a large outdoor firepit.  Participants gather around, drinking beers, chatting, possibly listening to the accordionist belt out some standards (and not-so standards, if you ask politely and/or tip well).  Into this enormous cauldron is lowered a proportionately enormous basket filled with chopped up lake whitefish and red potatoes.  They boil for a while, as the Master Boiler chats with the crowd, telling jokes and answering questions.  As the fish cooks, the oils in the fish that are not as pleasant tasting will leach out, floating to the surface of the water.  This is the sign for the big show-stopping moment.  The Master Boiler will ceremoniously throw a small bucketful of kerosene onto the fire, causing a brief explosion of flames and heat that makes the audience ooh and ahh (and surreptitiously check their eyebrows if they were sitting in the front), and, more importantly, causing the water to boil over the sides of the kettle briefly, taking all of the floating fish oils with it.  When the flames die down a minute later, the fish is removed from the cauldron, and everyone filters inside to their assigned tables to put down their coats and beers.

You don't stay there, though.  These affairs draw large crowds, so after figuring out where you're sitting, you promptly remove yourself to a cafeteria-style line, where you'll be issued a plate with a couple pieces of fish and some potatoes to take back to your seats.  At the table, a helpful waitperson will come by, bearing coleslaw and bread, and carefully explain that the fish, being smallish and having only been roughly bisected before cooking, will still have all of the bones in it.  He or she will then demonstrate (possibly more than once) how to take the bones out of the fish-- an operation that is somewhat fiddly, and frankly one that I didn't quite master.  You then, finally, eat the fish and the potatoes, hopefully saving some room at the end of the meal for some of the local cherry pie.

Personally, I found this to be an entertaining experience, but the fish frankly wasn't that appetizing.  It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't seasoned with anything but the salt in the cooking water and as a result was kind of bland, and it was just too much work trying to get all the bones out of it.  I'd rather just have pie.