Lowcountry Pickled Shrimp

Snappy pickled shrimp from North Carolina native Ben Barker are perfect for late-summer meals.

- Bill Smith

IN 1994, Food & Wine asked legendary food writer Jean Anderson to document a big Southern picnic hosted by Ben and Karen Barker, the kind you'd go to some summer Sunday after church. Ben and Karen owned and cooked at Magnolia Grill, the much-loved restaurant in Durham, North Carolina. Among the recipes from the picnic was one for pickled shrimp, a favorite in eastern North Carolina, where I'm from. Thirty years later, F&W has asked me to revisit that recipe. I was more than up for the task because I love pickled shrimp, and because Ben and I have been friends for more than 40 years.