How Frogmore Stew Became A South Carolina Staple

Despite its name, Frogmore stew does not contain frogs nor is it even a proper stew. While there are many variations, the dish most essentially consists of new potatoes, sweet corn on the cob, locally harvested shrimp, and smoked sausage boiled in a single big pot. It's typically the centerpiece of social gatherings in the Lowcountry (hence its other name, Lowcountry boil), drained of its liquids and served on newspaper (for ease of cleanup) with butter, lemon, hot sauce, coleslaw, rolls, and sweet iced tea.

Lowcountry legend dates the name "Frogmore stew" back to the 1960s when it was coined by shrimper and National Guard veteran Richard Gay who used leftover ingredients to serve up an ad-hoc variation of his family's traditional seafood boil. He popularized this recipe among his home community of Frogmore on St. Helena Island (near Beaufort, South Carolina), selling all the ingredients needed to make it from his family's seafood market, the Gay Fish Company.

Gay's recipe gained national prominence when it appeared on the cover of Gourmet Magazine in the 1980s, and again in 2005 when Richard's brother Charles Gay appeared on the Travel Channel's Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo. The concept of the Lowcountry boil has since been explored and elevated by high-profile chefs like Mike Lata, Hugh Acheson, and Vivian Howard. However, this is a gentrified account of Frogmore stew's history. In truth, it is simply a continuation of a much older tradition rooted in West and Central African foodways.

Close examination of South Carolina Lowcountry culture necessarily delves into the uncomfortable truths of the transatlantic slave trade. Enslaved Africans in this area and others were systemically stripped of cultural identity — save what could be preserved through oral tradition and foodways. The Gullah Geechee people of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida are descendants of the enslaved Africans in the Lowcountry and have long incorporated the Lowcountry boil into their celebrations.

Enslaved plantation workers typically had only meager access to cookery, usually a few pots to feed many mouths. Single-pot meals were thus common and needed to offer hearty reinforcement to belabored bodies with improvised ingredients. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, this lent itself to the ingredients for what became known as Frogmore stew. Shrimp was readily sourced from the surrounding marshes and waterways, while sausage was made from meat trimmings rejected by plantation owners as inferior. Corn and potatoes were among the South's many cash crops that would be in abundance at the peak of summer.

The Gullah Geechee culinary tradition is a major conservator of what enslaved West and Central Africans refused to let go of despite all oppression. Its soulful flavors and deep provenance hold universal appeal to those seeking authenticity and innovation. It is no accident that Frogmore stew and similar dishes still form the centerpiece of festivals and social gatherings throughout the Lowcountry — this is the purpose they've always served.