Lady’s Island Marina, Factory Creek, Beaufort, S.C.

There are some places that you get stuck in the emotional mud of being there.  Beaufort, South Carolina seems to be one of those places.

We stuck coming up the hill and now are stuck going down.  It’s one of those places that seems to have a little bit of everything and everyone.  The area is like an old, slow syrupy southern town, with flavor ribbons of up scale artistic eatery firmly planted right next to a good old fashioned “gullah cooking” café.

It is a land of contrasts:  Water & islands, forest & marsh, shrimp and deer, fresh & salt water.  The social & economic class lines, while certainly present, are blurred.  There are condos and farms and goodness gracious, young people that are polite to those their senior.  There are Marine and Naval officers living next to crabbers and shrimpers.  There is a pervasive tolerance, a live and let live attitude, a common denominator bringing all the favors of this village together.  Then there are some of the local delicacies.  The oysters, clams, shrimp, fish fresh off the boats.  There are the shrimp burgers and the Frogmore Stew.  Frogmore stew, born like many succulent indulgent dishes, born of need, was made with leftovers from the day’s catch.  The following was copied from the Beaufort County Library and written and compiled by Dennis Adams.

Shrimp (de-headed, but leave the shell on) about 1/2 lbs. per person.
Corn on the cob about 2 or 3 small ears per person (cobbies work great).

Smoked Sausage slice about 2-3 pieces, 1-3 inches long, per person.
Seasoning Can be Lemon Pepper or Old Bay Seasoning or salt and pepper.

Boil water in a large pot, season if desired with salt & lemon pepper or crab season or Old Bay Seasoning. Add corn ears and sausage links. Cook until done (about 10-15 minutes). Then add shrimp and cook until shrimp turns pink and begins to float (usually less than 40 seconds). Drain all water and you've got the best tasting Frogmore Stew (low country boil) around.
Add some cocktail sauce to the plates for dip, an extra bowl for the shrimp shells, lots of paper towels and everyone can shell their shrimp as they eat. If you want to eat Frogmore Stew the old traditional way, on the table... lay out a bunch of newspapers, dump the pot and dig in. Great for parties.

Do not overcook as shrimp will be tough or mushy.

Some folks add potatoes and crab meat and it does add a unique flavor, although it is fantastic as above and a lot less work. You can modify the amounts however you wish.

Now this is just one of the delights that are offered exclusively out of this area.  Lets talk about Gullah.
The following is an excerpt from the The Ultimate Gullah Cookbook by Jesse Edward Gantt, Jr. and Veronica D.Gerald

“Gullah Food is older than the South and as ancient as the world. It is one of the oldest African and American traditions being practiced in this country today. As it has always been, it is informed by need, availability and environment. The Africans brought to the Carolina colony used the similarities between culinary environments of the low country and the West Coast of Africa to create a food culture that has come to characterize the regions where they live.
One of the biggest ironies is that rice, the grain that had been in African food culture for thousands of years, became the cash crop and reason for the American enslavement of many Gullah people.

For years, the oceans, other bodies of water, and farming practices remained in the backdrop while rice, seafood and vegetables (corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, collards, turnips, peanuts, okra, eggplant, beans and peas) brought the connection between both sides of the Atlantic full circle. Slave cooks simply adapted their African cooking traditions to American soil.
Even today, cooking traditions remain somewhat consistent. One pot dishes, deep frying, rice dishes, sea food, boiling and steaming, baking in ashes, basic and natural seasonings, and food types consistent with those received in the weekly rations on plantations are all characteristics of Gullah food.

The food is characterized by the ever presence of rice and a distinct “taste” present wherever Gullah people are cooking. The recipes are simply frames; the art work is created in the taste buds of the preparer. Try to obtain a recipe or cooking directions from Gullah cooks, and you will more than likely get the generic response, “ah ‘on measur.” They will tell you that they cook “cordin’ ta taste.” This taste is passed down from generation to generation, but unlike other ingredients, it is an elusive quality guided by memory and taste buds, almost impossible to explain in words. It is an ingredient that must be experienced. Tasted first, then duplicated each time Gullah food is prepared.
Under the task system used on most rice plantations, each slave was assigned a certain task each day. These tasks included ground breaking, digging trenches, plowing, hoeing, harrowing, threshing and other specific tasks related to rice farming. Unlike gang labor employed on cotton and tobacco plantations, when slaves on rice plantations finished their assigned tasks, they were generally free to tend their own gardens, fish or hunt for wild game. As a consequence, they were often able to enhance and supplement their ration supply with vegetables from their own gardens, natural seasonings, wild game, chicken, eggs and fish. These supplements also include leftovers given to them during hog killings. Feet, ears, entrails, jowls, heads and the like are still favorite meats for celebrations.”

Slave Rations:
• 10 quarts Rice or peas
• One-Bushel Sweet Potatoes
• 2-3 Mullet or Mackerel- Salt Fish (in the winter)
• 1 pint Molasses
• 2 pounds Pork
• Bacon and Beef (in the summer)
• 1 peck of Meal
• 1 peck Grits

Slave cooks simply incorporated the weekly rations given to slave families into the African cooking traditions of their ancestors. A glance at the average food ration given on Brookgreen Plantation in Murrells in the 1800’s reads like a grocery list for a 21st century household.
Simply speaking, Gullah food is about ancestral ties and American living, adaptability, creativity, making do, livin’ ot da waddah and on the lan’. It is a culture within the culture, with its own history, heritage, and distinction. It is a food culture handed down through practice more so than with words It lives among us in the restaurants, homes, kitchens, backyards, family reunions, church anniversaries, birthday parties and other celebrations that dot across the grounds that the Gullah call home.

Excerpt from
Gullah is actually a language, West African Pidgen English with Creole influence.  Gullah culture has sustained over the years in the area in the lowcountry of Beaufort Count.  Much of what is considered low country cooking is based on the Creole traditions of the Gullah culture.  Gullah dishes come with local names from different islands in the area.  Here are a few of the old recipes from Sallie Ann Robinson from Daufuskie Island where Pat Conroy worked for a year as a teacher on the isolated island that is now filled with gated communities and upscale homes.

Smokin Joe Butter  Beans, Fuskie Crab Patties, Runaway Fried Chicken, Backwoods Baked Barbecue Coon, Generations Hoppin Johns, Anything Rice,  Hand tossed fluffy biscuits.  These come from Robinsons book titled.  Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way.
Heck, being stuck in mud like this isn’t all that bad.  Places like this where you can still live off the island lands and the surrounding waters offer a contentment and self confidence that radiates in the locals and the heritage, although threatened with dilution, is strongly  entrenched in the area.

Musings from the quarterdeck.

   
 
Capt'n Lynnie and Skinwalker