It’s been at least two decades since I’ve been to a Fish Boil, but Zia and I went to one tonight in Ephriam. It was a fundraiser for the Ellie Helm foundation and turned out to be a beautiful evening after a solid day and a half of rain.
In short, a Fish Boil is a Scandinavian/Norweigian tradition that goes back to the early settlers of the Door County peninsula who mostly fished or forested. Take the fish, boiling them all at once with some salt, onions, and potatoes was a great way to feed the small communities.
Now it’s a bit of a tourist attraction — but still a fun spectacle. You should up, gathering around a roaring fire outside with a cauldron-like pot over the flames. The boil master brings out the fish in a pot and puts it on the fire and gives the historical spiel while the whitefish boils for seven minutes. During the cooking, all the gunk from the pot floats to the surface and our ancestors found an efficient way to get all of it off before eating that we still use today: throw a bunch of kerosene on the fire and blow that top layer right off. It’s awesome.
We got to enjoy our dinner on a deck that overlooked the calm Ephriam bay with a glass of wine and a cherry pie dessert. Feels like a Door County summer.
With Love,
Natlaie