When you come to Beaufort, bring your appetite.

One popular local dish is Beaufort Stew, or Lowcountry Boil, prepared here by caterer Steve Brown of Broad River Seafood.

Good morning...

I'm Steve Brown from Beaufort.

I'm here to show you about a Lowcountry supper, Frogmore Stew from the Sea Islands, from Beaufort, and the surrounding areas.

This morning we have a 21-, 25-count shrimp to a pound.

You can buy this at your supermarket.

We have regular sausage, and this particular one is Hillshire sausage; fresh white and yellow corn... use either or both; and celery and onions that have been chopped about three-quarters of an inch thick.

Ready to go... this is one of the simplest Lowcountry meals.

It was many years ago with the shrimp nets.

Everybody had nets, lived on the water on the islands.

They needed a simple meal.

They had chickens and hogs runnin' around.

They had sausage, had fresh corn.

This meal developed over a hundred years ago in the Lowcountry, and they've been eatin' it ever since.

I'm gonna show you how you do this at home.

It's very easy... you do it on your stove.

It's a simple dish.

Start with a big pot of boilin' water.

Measure your shrimp according to how many people you have eating and corn and sausage depending on how much you want.

I've got a big pot, bigger than you would naturally have.

We're here with beautiful water behind us.

We wanted to be outside with the beautiful atmosphere.

I have a boiling pot of water, and I've used chicken base in the water because years ago chickens were used just to give us a base to get started.

One of the main ingredients when you're doin' Frogmore Stew is Old Bay Seasoning.

Now, that is measured according to your need.

I need about... oh, I'd say, a good pint in mine today when I'm cookin' for you.

You won't need but a couple of big tablespoons, maybe 3, depending on how spicy you want it.

All right, now...

I've got boilin' water, chicken base, and Old Bay in my pot.

The water is at a roaring boil.

The very first thing I want to do... is... take my... celery and onion... [vegetables clonking on plate] uh, like this, and...

I take it right into the pot.

I'll get us some corn... and I've got white corn and yellow corn, okay?

Now, stir that with your boiling water.

Go ahead and stir it good...get it goin'.

Remember...you want to cover your pot then if you can.

I'm gonna stir, and I'm gonna cover my pot.

[lid clanking] Let that corn cook for about 10 minutes-- you know how long it takes at home, about 10 minutes-- with the celery and onion and spices until that corn gets done.

Now I'm gonna put my sausage in.

[sausage clonking on plate] Okay?

Now, while I'm doin' this, I've got my shrimp ready.

I'm gonna put a little bit more.

We're gonna need a little more.

Okay... there we go.

I'm gonna stir that again good.

What happens is, the sausage cooks, the corn, Old Bay Seasoning, juices and fat from the sausage comes out into the water.

And you have chicken base, so you've got a real base developed for the shrimp, and that's the key.

Chicken base and starting it off with Old Bay Seasoning, and that gives you-- the fat coming out of that sausage gives you your flavor.

The very next thing we're gonna put in there is shrimp... goin' in the pot.

Now, these shrimp... very important that you do not overcook shrimp.

People have a tendency to cook things too much, one of the things bein' seafood.

A lot of seafood today is overcooked... fish fillets are overcooked, shrimp is overcooked.

It takes about three minutes at a roaring boil to cook a big shrimp like this.

If you've got these in the pot for 10 or 15 minutes, you've overcooked 'em.

So let's-- here they go in.

One of the things down in this area-- of course, this became a big meal down here.

My father was born and raised here, so this is what we ate as a meal on Friday and Saturday nights.

Three minutes have passed.

Now, I cook to eye.

So, I cook according to...

I don't use time anymore.

There we go.

I'm gonna grab a big cloth right here.

Look at that shrimp, corn, and sausage.

Isn't that pretty?

Let's bring it over here... and I'm gonna dump it.

Now, years ago what they had was big tables with newspaper on 'em.

They'd go outside and spread out newspaper and dump it on the table when it got done.

I'm gonna just dump it right here into the seashell.

And that's what Frogmore Stew, Lowcountry supper, and Beaufort Stew looks like.

It's a beautiful, colorful meal... hope you enjoy.