Barbecued Grouper
Florida because of its projection into the tropic waters of the Caribbean boasts a distinctive set of foods that came to mark it as different from other states. Tupelo Honey, the Duncan Grapefruit, the Hayden Mango, the Dancy Tangerine, the Parson Brown Orange, the Conch Pea, the Grove and Datil Peppers. The waters of the Atlantic and the Gulf supplied Pompano, Stone Crab, Apalachicola Oysters, Queen Conch, and Green Turtle. It supplied Grouper galore. At the beginning of the twentieth century chefs in resort hotels in St. Augustine and Jacksonville began crafting a distinctive set of dishes, with tropical fruits and seafood that were either grilled or barbecued. Daytona Beach gave birth to barbecued grouper.
The coastal waters off Florida host several members of the vast sea bass family called grouper. Most possess a sturdy body covered in small scales, a broad mouth with a projecting lower jaw, rows of spikey depressable teeth and a few large fixed canines. They vary widely in coloration from gaudy to drab and can alter coloration to match the sea bottom. The most popular are from heaviest to lightest, largest to smallest, the Warsaw, the Speckled Hind, The Jewfish, the Gag, the Black, the Red, the Snowy, the Scamp, and the Yellow Mouth. Primarily a game fish landed for local consumption until the mid-twentieth century, they became an important component of the commercial fishery, along with snapper and blackfish, in the 1950s. Some are deep water varieties caught at depths of 150 feet or more, usually around reefs. The Warsaw, the Speckled Hind, and the Snow Grouper belong to this group. Others are landed at more moderate depth, from 20 to 150 feet—the black, scamp, gag, red, and Jewfish. They congregate at isolated rocky outcrops on the ocean bottom of the Atlantic coastal shelf. The standard bait tends to be live shrimp or eels. Fisherfolk in Florida love Grouper.
But don’t tell the governor of Florida that. He might find out that grouper is the sex change fish. Groupers as a family are protogynous hermaphrodites. All of them begin life as females, and after producing eggs, their endocrine systems turn them into males. Perhaps Ichthyology—the biology of fishes—will become another banned subject in the public school curriculum. It would be “uncomfortable” for some citizens to learn that Providence designed certain creatures as trans.
Barbecuing grouper did not originate in Florida. It was practiced in the Caribbean by Taino Indians who barbecued large fishes on elevated racks in the islands pre-contact with Europeans. The settlers, including the picaroons of Tortuga, picked up the habit. What changed with the Europeans was the saucing. Vinegar and pepper supplemented the salt. And then, in the 19th century tomato and sugar or molasses entered the mix. Daytona Barbecued Grouper used tomato catsup with an admixture of citrus juice. Orange juice was the default in local restaurants. Then in the 1980s the local fish purveyor Jim Park changed it up by substituting lime juice for orange. Now two schools contend in Daytona Beach. Both agree, however, that the Grouper should be cooked “low and slow.”
Former Florida resident here, who sorely misses a good grouper sandwich. My preference was grilled -- not barbecued, not blackened. Yum!