Crawfish/Crayfish/Crawdad Boil

[MNH20FowlHunter]

We were thinking of catching some crayfish and trying a boil this summer. Has anyone on here had any experience doing something like that? We have never done it before but are intrigued to try. Also any recipe ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Great eatin'...Throw in some corn on the cob,red potatoes and some Old Bay Seasoning.
Use lemons and drawn butter as condiments.Some folks like cocktail sauce.Enjoy!

 

[406LIFE]

Great eatin'...Throw in some corn on the cob,red potatoes and some Old Bay Seasoning.
Use lemons and drawn butter as condiments.Some folks like cocktail sauce.Enjoy!

We also add sausage and shrimp. I also add a Cold Smoke or two. Rollout bu5cher paper on table and dump. Crab dip for appetizer, bread pudding with rum glaze dor dessert. We invite a bunch of friends for our annual boil.

 

[Ajax2744]

We green up catching crawdads at a local pond. We would tie on a piece of lunch meat to a string and drop it by rocks and after a few seconds pull up a crawdad. We would catch 5 gallon buckets full and take em home and my dad would boil em up. Corn, red potatoes, andouille sausage, crawdads and an old Bay seasoning packet and your good to go. It a blast or you could make crawfish etouffee. Or gumbo. Both have tons of recipes online to lookup.

 

[Gellar]

after we clean fish at our place on lake of the woods the kids (and me)like to take a piece of the scraps on a hook and drop it off the dock in a couple of feet of water. It doesn’t take the crayfish long to find it most days. It takes a lot of crayfish for a meal!

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Ajax2744...Forgot about the shrimp and sausage .

 

[dcopas78]

I do crab boils all the time. I'm partial to the Louisana Seafood boil seasoning myself. I usually use crab, shrimp, corn, new potatoes, andouille or Conecuh sausage (awesome stuff!). I add lemon halves (squeezed into the water), garlic gloves, salt and seasoning to the water and get a rolling boil going.

Add potatoes to roiling boil. Return to rolling boil for 8-10 minutes (if real small potatoes, you could probably shorten to like 5 minutes)
Add Corn on the cob. Return to boil for 5 minutes
Add Sausage. Return to boil for 5 minutes
Add crab. Return to boil for 8 minutes
Add precooked shrimp and let boil 1-2 minutes. For raw, allow a few more minutes
Kill heat and add some ice to cool water down to stop cooking process and let it "soak" for 10-15 minutes
The longer it soaks, the more seasoning gets drawn into the crab/crayfish. Loiusiana seasoning is spicey. If you want less spicy, Zatarans is good too. You can't go wrong with Old Bay either.

link to Louisiana Seafood Boil:

Amazon.com : Louisiana Fish Fry Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil Seasoning (4.5 Pounds) : Cajun Seasonings : Gateway

Amazon.com : Louisiana Fish Fry Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil Seasoning (4.5 Pounds) : Cajun Seasonings : Gateway

www.amazon.com

link to Conecuh sausage:

Conecuh Sausage - True Southern Flavor

The Highest Quality Meats, Prepared With Our Patented Blend Of Seasonings, And Smoked Over A Pure Hickory Fire

conecuhsausage.com

 

[1_pointer]

And now I have crawfish traps in my Amazon cart...

 

[TwistedSage]

We use a couple bags of this and some hot sauce, beer and whatever else sounded goog along with a whole mess of crawfish corn on the cob sections, sausage, and quartered potatoes. And yes just dump the whole mess on a covered table. One of my favorite meals. Did it at least once a year when I lived in TX. I do miss H.E.B.

 

[JV842]

Twistedsage, I wrkd for HEB in high school!!! Going to buy some crawfish next week from there, but I ain’t eating em!!!! Going to run some jug lines n trot lines n use em for bait!!! Love eating em but so do the big blues n flatheads!!!

 

[WyoDoug]

If you get enough, they are fantastic. Look up cajun recipes on how to prepare them. I was stationed in Biluxi, Mississippi for a spell and Gulport and ate a ton of that before I was transferred. Really good eating.

 

[oleefish2]

We have done several boils here in Wyoming and they are just like the ones we had in LA.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Went to a cajun resaurant once that sold tee shirts that said
"Suck the Heads and Eat theTails" of course I bought 2.
The resaurant was on an old Paddlwheeler.

 

[Gellar]

Went to a cajun resaurant once that sold tee shirts that said
"Suck the Heads and Eat theTails" of course I bought 2.
The resaurant was on an old Paddlwheeler.

I think may have a shirt like that too. I think I got mine in new Iberia La, but could be wrong.

 

[Tradewind]

Crawfish etouffee

crawfish etouffee recipes - Google Search

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Gellar got mine on the Sacramento river in Cal.

 

[BackofBeyond]

We did plenty of crawfish boils while we were living in Texas. Plenty of recipes online, but one trick I learned from our neighbor was to put 4 or 5 sticks of butter in with the boil. Doesn't add much for flavor, but it makes peeling the mud bugs and the shrimp easier.

 

[LaSportsman]

Skip the Old Bay. That's for MD blue crabs which are also quite good in one of the various Louisiana Crab Boils as well.

Use Louisiana Seafood, Zatarans, or Slam your mama. I prefer liquid but some like the dry seasoning. The dry can be sprinkled on after boiling them.

I stick with corn on the cob, red potatoes, and onions. Artichokes aren't bad either. Love cajun smoked sausage but don't like soggy sausage from a crawfish boil.

I also prefer to boil my crawfish separately from the corn and potatoes. Potatoes take a lot longer. Depends on how much you are boiling. Standard is around 35-40 lbs of crawfish at a time for boil in Louisiana. Can definitely do smaller batches if you are just testing it out. About 7-10 lbs live weight per person is a good serving size.

Crawfish need to be alive when boiled like lobster.

 

[.270]

You also have to purge the crawdads with clean water. After a couple of rinses all of the dirt comes off of them. I didnt do this my first time trying a boil and you could taste it. I prefer just corn, small red whole potatoes and some local sausage. Zatarain is a good seasoning but I like swamp fire the best. LaSportsman has some pretty good advice.

 

[LaSportsman]

Meant to add purging and forgot! Thanks for adding it.