-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email While I wasn’t especially fond of this week’s “Top Chef” because of an unfortunate boot, some lackluster food, some odd alumni decisions, and my favorite cheftstant having to jet to urgent care for a deep cut, the episode did indeed elucidate two fascinating Wisconsin food customs that were, up until this week, entirely foreign to me: fish boils and meat raffles. While the meat raffle is somewhat common sense, the fish boil is . .
. anything but. As "Torch" — the essential master of ceremonies, kerosene-thrower, master boiler and Fish Boil expert present in the episode — shared, a fish boil involves someone throwing kerosene on a large pot of boiling water (or other liquids) in which fish is being cooked relatively quickly .
The kerosene conflagration causes the water itself to boil over, releasing a fireball and enormous amounts of smoke, which in turn also happens to remove all scum and impurities, allowing for the fish to then be served without unappetizing crud decorating it. Related "Top Chef" goes "back to the good land," celebrating Native and indigenous ingredients Personally, from a culinary perspective alone, the idea of a fish boil isn't the most appetizing; as Dan noted in the episode, he had been taught that fish should be poached, not boiled. For me, the major issue is the lack of texture.
Boiled fish — no matter what it's boiled in or flavored with — is, at the end of the day . . .
boiled fish. While the s.
