Dr. Dave is not too proud of himself this morning. The shrimp boil was not successful. These platitudes come to mind:
1. Patience is a virtue.
2. A watched pot never boils.
3. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Do you know how long it takes 25 quarts of water to boil? I don't. The watched pot never did boil. Something else; they call it a shrimp boil for a reason. The key word is: BOIL! Boiling water has so much cooking energy. Hot water does not. I was running out of time.
While I was watching the pot not boil, my helpers were cutting up potatoes and corn. I had just brought a full bag of potatoes, intending to cut up twelve of them. Instead, the whole bag was dissected. Way too many potatoes! It's my fault for giving inadequate instructions.
So...I added too many potatoes to non-boiling water...which continued to not boil. After too short a time, I added the corn, mushrooms, onions and peppers. All of those can steep pretty well in hot, but not boiling!, water. Finally I added the shrimp.
When the shrimp turned pink (natural thermometers), I pulled the basket of food out of the pot ready (not!) to serve. The corn, peppers, onions and shrimp had cooked. The potatoes had not. I out them back in the non-boiling water, and they still came out hard.
So the shrimp non-boil was a non-success.
Lessons learned:
1. Get there early-If I had shown up two hours early, maybe the water would had boiled.
2. Do
your own food preparation. I would have kept the amount of potatoes to a minimum.
3. Follow the recipe! Don't start cooking until the water boils!
Also, do you know how many beers it takes to make a pot of water boil. I do, but I can't remember. My nephew Drew Ayling had to chauffer me home. Thanks Drew!
I think I'll stick to smoking for the rest of the weekend.
Dr. Dave
