teach a yankee to boil crawdads!

[troy_mclure]

Lol.
Ive been down here for about a decade now, and have decided its time to do a crawfish boil.
I love the taters, mushrooms, corn, and sausages. The crawfish are ok too.
I will be cooking for 2 adults, a teen, and 2 preteens.
Not too spicey please.
So whats the best boil? How much?
Pot size?
How much crawfish? Taters etc...
Onion and lemons?
When is everything added?
Salt soak the crawfish??? (Not sure if thats real)
Any extra advice?

Teach me something mister! Lol

 

[Metryshooter]

It's a bit of an art form and almost everyone has their own way. One piece of advice, ignore anyone's recipe who tells you to salt soak (purge) crawfish.

 

[Blue Diamond]

It's a bit of an art form and almost everyone has their own way. One piece of advice, ignore anyone's recipe who tells you to salt soak (purge) crawfish.

Yes please do. The crawfish is a fresh water creature and a salt purge will just make them real sick before they die.

 

[Who dat]

Wash crawfish by hosing and then Changing baskets a few times until water is clear.
The seasoning is up to you. Couple of onions, a bunch of lemons. Zatarans plus a cap full of cayenne and 1/2 bottle of big bottle of liquid crab boil. Boil your seasoning and potatoes only for about 5 min, add garlic for 5 more. Put veggies in and crawfish and when it comes to a boil cook for 6min. Cut fire, add frozen corn, half a bag of ice and hose the pot to cool. Soak 10 min and taste test every 5 after.

Everyone does it different but this is the way I do it and I cook for parties all the time. Next boil use same water and use 1/2 a jar of zatarans or seasoning and repeat with everything else. I like the Seafood City seasoning as its a little different from cajunland or zatarans.

 

[Jmfox3]

What Who Dat said:

"when it comes to a boil cook for 6min," don't over cook

"Cut fire, add frozen corn, half a bag of ice and hose the pot to cool," this is called breaking the boil and important so you don't over cook

"Soak 10 min and taste test every 5 after," the longer you soak the spicier.

Throw in some extra potatoes and make potato salad with them; best potato salad ever

Good luck!

 

[Jasarii]

Crawfish boil potato salad is the bomb!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[stag0608]

Use Cajun Land seasoning. For one sack, about 35# use one whole tub of the powder, two of the dry seasoning bags, and one small thing of the liquid. This will give you a lot of flavor and just the right amount of spice. Boil your potatoes,onions,garlic,lemons first for 5 min. Then add your crawfish. Boil them for 5min no longer. Add your sausage and mushrooms when you have 2 min left. Add your frozen corn when you turn off the fire. Hose the outside and bottom of the pot down. Do not add water to the pot. Soak till the flavor is right.

 

[marcw85]

We add a whole uncut pineapple to the boil. Buy a whole uncut pineapple from the store and just throw it in with the potatoes. After the boil shave off the rind and slice it up. You will notice the spice is only in the first 1/4 inch or so of the pineapple while the interior is still sweet, leaving a sweet and spicy treat afterwards. I know, I thought it was weird the first time I saw it, but we do it now for each boil.

 

[noob]

I prefer the Louisiana seasoning over zaterains

 

[Old School]

First thing, stop calling them crawdads...just saying.

 

[Gator 45/70]

You forgot the mushrooms!

 

[Gus McCrae]

First thing, stop calling them crawdads...just saying.

This. This is your start.



BTW, the best crawfish I get is cooked by a buddy from Illinois. He moved here over a decade ago and has soaked up Louisiana Lifestyle. He loves it.

 

[pyreaux]

Carrots, whole or cut in 2-3 pieces are damn good.

 

[US Infidel]

Throw a corn beef brisket in with the boil. Best meat ever.

 

[Rhandhali]

I've done a few boils and am still working up what works really well. Things I have learend
-Absolutely do a freshwater soak for the crawfish. I went to a boil once where they skipped this step and the boil mix was muddy and gritty. We hose the bags off good, empty the crawfish into a cooler, open the drain and let water run over the batch for a good 10-15 minutes.

-Don't bother cutting up the garlic at all, just break it off of the garland or whatever it's on and chuck it in whole.

-Mushrooms and/or cauliflower are magic in a boil. They really soak up the spices.

-I've never had a boil that was too hot. I've had ones that burned so much everyone was crying, but it hurt so good.

-I threw a country ham hock in once. I can say I don't recommend that. Country ham is awesome, crawfish boils are awesome. Country ham flavored crawfish are just OK but there's too much ham in them.

-In addition to lemons some lemon juice concentrate frozen to slushy consistency, tossed in with the frozen corn is good.

-Do not neglect to add some andouille or some kind of sausage.

-Have a second, full propane tank on hand.

 

[AustinBR]

Throw in some cut up oranges as well. 8 to 12 recommended. I've even seen people add orange juice to the boil. It makes them have a nice sweet flavor!

 

[k0k0m0]

Put a pineapple in the boil just poke some holes in it

 

[Request Dust Off]

Throw in some cut up oranges as well. 8 to 12 recommended. I've even seen people add orange juice to the boil. It makes them have a nice sweet flavor!

The orange adds a nice touch. Then again I like orange/shrimp and citrus/seafood together.
I worked crawfish cook-offs as a volunteer. The category for 'Other Stuff' had some interesting items. Brussel sprouts were surprisingly good. Frog legs were kind of a waste. Pineapple is good.
I judged one but they only did the judging on the crawfish. With only 8 judges it would have been hard to judge anything else.

The garlic mixed with mayo or butter makes a great spread, just don't talk about in the health and fitness forum.

 

[Gus McCrae]

Cut some sweet potatoes into large chunks.

Sent via the Pony Express!

 

[Emperor]

If you don't want to know the truth about crawfish, skip the next paragraph and go straight to my recipe portion.

Crawfish are very nasty little buggers. Most people that suck the heads of those nasty bastards would stop instantly (or cut back at the very least), if they saw the juice that comes out of their stomachs. Out of sight out of mind I guess. And the "fat?" That is not fat. That is the hepto-pancreas, and it is chock full of every pesticide, heavy metal, and toxin that little bastard swims in. Not to mention biting the meat out of the tail with your front teeth without making sure the intestinal tract is left behind. That is boiled feces you are eating. Now don't get me wrong! I enjoy them too! I have just refined my way of eating them and have cut back the head sucking to about every 10th one, and only the smaller ones when I do. I remove the carapace and use a plastic knife to scrape the "fat" off of the stomach. I realize the Hepto-pancreas is full of some nasty stuff, but it is not really enough to matter unless you eat these things every day; and/or they were caught in a sewage canal or the runoff canals near a chemical plant, industrial site, or an oil refinery! And I NEVER eat the crap anymore. That comes off of every tail I put in my mouth. Sure it's harmless, but again; it's boiled crap. I can live without that now.

Now for your recipe portion. All of the aforementioned recipes are acceptable, but to make it better, if you can find some, get a bottle of lemon oil. You need a very small amount and you add it to the water after the boiling process. It delivers a very nice flavor other than the standard cayenne pepper flavor. If you can't find that, grate real lemons for the zest, and then squeeze the lemons for the juice. Don't throw the actual lemons in there, they will soak up your seasonings which of course takes away from your crawfish. If you really want to crank it up, get the bulk seasoning mix with the seed spices. The kind of spices/seeds in the Zatarains boil n'bag seasoning packets. If you can't find bulk, throw 12 bags of the Zat's in with all the other seasonings. After all, you want the crawfish to have some unique flavor, not just spicy or salty.

Enjoy!