Didn't want to derail other thread.

Take me through your process...purge, seasoning, cook, soak, serve. What works best for you?

I'm a big BBQ, smoker guy but never have done crawfish myself although I love eating them.

Oh lawds here we go again........



I don't like watery crawfish. That's all "soaking" really does. I'll cook em the way they always turn out right , simple boils then in to a cooler. Way my Cajun daddy, family, and in laws do it. I think the soaking thing is something some drunk coon ass came up with to convince uncle Billy his tasted better....

The secret is cooking them in just a little bit of seasoning, and then moving to cooler water to soak for 20 minutes. The cooler water has all the seasoning in it and the crawfish will absorb the seasoning much more and peel like butter

You soak them in a cooler of water to make them fall out the shell? We put a couple sticks of butter in the pot and just go..... same effect.

Not a cooler full of water, cool water and just adding butter is not the same effect

Wait....what? You put them in cool water after you cook them? I don't understand any of that rationale... you don't like hot crawfish??

And yes, the right amount of butter in the pot means you pinch the tail and the whole thing comes loose

• Drink bloody mary
• Pick up crawfish from supplier
  
• Unload crawfish from sacks into trough/tub/cooler for rinsing/purging
• Hose down crawfish
• Add enough water to let the dead float to the top, let container continue to drain.
• Drink beer, watch the big ones fight.
• Fill pot w/ water, start your burner.
• Salt, hose, beer, repeat. Stir if possible.
• Water boiling - add dry seasoning, liquid seasoning, beer, butter, hot sauce, white vinegar and juice from lemons.
• Clean one of the crawfish sacks. Throw in the now-juiced lemons, wedged onions, whole head garlic, bay leaves, etc... and add to boiling water. Drink another beer.
• Rinse the crawfish again. Pick out any dead. Why not stop for a beer?
• Load up basket with first batch of crawfish, drop 'em in. Add lemon/onion sack on top of basket, keep the string hanging out so it can be retrieved. (This sack should go back in the pot every time you add something) Boil until it looks right, some floaters.
• Cut fire. Drink beer.
• Pull basket, burn bare feet with boiling water. Drink beer to soothe.
• Dump first batch into styrofoam cooler, dust with seasoning. Close, shake.
• Light the fire. Sample first batch when no one is looking.
• Water boiling - add red potatoes.
• Wait 8-10 minutes. Why not drink a beer?
• Add sausage and THAWED corn.
• Wait 5 minutes. Send someone to the store for more beer.
• Sample first batch when no one is looking.
  
• Add mushrooms.
• Wait 3-5 minutes, cut fire.
• Sample first batch when no one is looking.
  
• Wait 3-5 minutes, think about how bad your foot hurts, wonder where that guy is with the beer.
• Pull basket, drain, dump into separate styrofoam cooler.
• Hey look! The beer guy is here.
• Now you can tell people about that first batch.
• Turn the fire back on, bring to boil, add more dry seasoning to taste.
• Load up second batch of crawfish and repeat until you run out of beer again.

The hot crawfish will heat the cool water up and not cool off the crawfish. I help my buddy cater some of the biggest boils around Houston and can attest to the method we use

HJ02, I'll need to laminate this and use it for my next boil.

Never seen anyone east of Houston do that, been eating and helping boil them between beaumont and Baton Rouge since I was a kid.....

I can't stand them soaked personally hot or cold. Only difference I have ever tasted was a crap load more boil water on the crawfish.

Purge optional

• 1 sack (35 37 pounds) of crawfish into a tub
• soak for no more than 10 minutes
• drain and flush and throw out dead crawfish.

Boil for one sack of crawfish

• large bottle of crab boil or a full bag of the dry boil
• big jar of red pepper
• 1 box salt (I usually only use a half box)
• add potatoes, onions and boil for 15 20 minutes
• add garlic. crawfish, corn, sausage, mushrooms, broccoli and boil for additional 5
  minutes
• shut off the heat and immediately reduce the heat to 140 degrees (two milk just
  of ice with the caps on)
• soak for 15 to 20 minutes

Add half the amount of spices for additional batches

quote:

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Never seen anyone east of Houston do that, been eating and helping boil them between beaumont and Baton Rouge since I was a kid.....

---

So what? Just because this method is not used by them Cajuns doesn't mean it doesn't work. Cajuns don't got a monopoly on how to cook tasty crawfish.

This is almost as good as beans or no beans.

Now imagine beans with crawdads.

I imagine some fresh green beans in the boil would be pretty damn tasty... I'll have to add that to the list.

I was thinking pinto, but greens beans do sound good.

Make sure you soft boil some eggs in the boil after you turn down the burner

It always cracks me up how people like Ag_of_08 trip all over themselves to show just authentic they are when it comes to the cooking habits of illiterate, incestuous swamp-dwellers. You really think any of those cretins over the years have actually had the intelligence to write down a recipe?

quote:

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Never seen anyone east of Houston do that, been eating and helping boil them between beaumont and Baton Rouge since I was a kid.....

I can't stand them soaked personally hot or cold. Only difference I have ever tasted was a crap load more boil water on the crawfish.

---

I personally don't soak them in cooler water but I would question the "expertise" of anyone who hasn't at least heard of that method.

And yes, it is most certainly done "east of the Sabine".

My method:

- Wash and purge if you have time
- Add twice the seasoning called for on the package (I like swamp fire)
- Boil water while cooking "other stuff"
- Rolling bowl, add crawfish and bring back to boil
- Rest/steam in a cooler for 15-20 minutes prior to serving

Drink beer, don't sweat the details, and have fun.

11:52a AAG

• Drink bloody mary
• Pick up crawfish from supplier
  
• Unload crawfish from sacks into trough/tub/cooler for rinsing/purging
• Hose down crawfish
• Add enough water to let the dead float to the top, let container continue to drain.
• Drink beer, watch the big ones fight.
• Fill pot w/ water, start your burner.
• Salt, hose, beer, repeat. Stir if possible.
• Water boiling - add dry seasoning, liquid seasoning, beer, butter, hot sauce, white vinegar and juice from lemons.
• Clean one of the crawfish sacks. Throw in the now-juiced lemons, wedged onions, whole head garlic, bay leaves, etc... and add to boiling water. Drink another beer.
• Rinse the crawfish again. Pick out any dead. Why not stop for a beer?
• Load up basket with first batch of crawfish, drop 'em in. Add lemon/onion sack on top of basket, keep the string hanging out so it can be retrieved. (This sack should go back in the pot every time you add something) Boil until it looks right, some floaters.
• Cut fire. Drink beer.
• Pull basket, burn bare feet with boiling water. Drink beer to soothe.
• Dump first batch into styrofoam cooler, dust with seasoning. Close, shake.
• Light the fire. Sample first batch when no one is looking.
• Water boiling - add red potatoes.
• Wait 8-10 minutes. Why not drink a beer?
• Add sausage and THAWED corn.
• Wait 5 minutes. Send someone to the store for more beer.
• Sample first batch when no one is looking.
  
• Add mushrooms.
• Wait 3-5 minutes, cut fire.
• Sample first batch when no one is looking.
  
• Wait 3-5 minutes, think about how bad your foot hurts, wonder where that guy is with the beer.
• Pull basket, drain, dump into separate styrofoam cooler.
• Hey look! The beer guy is here.
• Now you can tell people about that first batch.
• Turn the fire back on, bring to boil, add more dry seasoning to taste.
• Load up second batch of crawfish and repeat until you run out of beer again.
  

quote:

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I imagine some fresh green beans in the boil would be pretty damn tasty... I'll have to add that to the list.

---

One of my customers does this. Sounds delicious to me.

I have also considered boiling peanuts in crawfish boil. They are bound to be fantastic.

Those illiterate cretins are my family, thank you for the personal insult.

I've heard of killing the fire and letting them soak, or transferring them to a pot of just sub boiling water after they've been on to boil, never of actually putting them in anything I'd call cool though, and never heard anyone say it makes them easier to peel. The arguments has always been " it's more FLAVOR"

Alright, I'm putting crawdads and beans in chilli....actually, that sounds kinda good.

With the fat side down!

Switched it up a few years ago with orange juice concentrate, biggest jar of minced garlic, and lemongrass in the boil along with traditional seasoning. I'd had some at a Vietnamese place before and was my best guess at recreating. Turned out really well.

I did two pot method with that mixture in soaking pot. I thought boiling the oj may burn so I went for two pot.


Eggs are great. Turkey necks too. Pineapple is killer. Olives get salty but are good as well

With so many people swearing by so many different variations, I'm thinkim it's really hard to mess up crawfish !

Crawfish in chili is epic......beans are effing nasty period though.

It is hard to ruin them, just harder to get them perfect :-)

One neighborhood I grew up in was Louisiana transplants. I guess the realtor tipped them off where to find each other.

During season the boil just moved down a few doors each weekend.

both methods were used. These guys nailed it every time. There wasn't a single argument on preparation either. Odd how that works in real life.

The real argument should be about prices. I know it's the demand but you have to take out a small loan to boil anymore. I guess the same can be said of brisket though

We've got em for 2.50 a pound or less already. I. Hoping for a 1.50 a pound season but prolly not happening

quote:

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Crawfish in chili is epic......beans are effing nasty period though.

It is hard to ruin them, just harder to get them perfect :-)

---

Now we all know for sure that you're an "illiterate cretin". Must run in the family or somethin'.

Guess I'll be one to avoid beans *barf*

Had my fill in Costa Rica, didn't like them before, sure don't after. Chili that looks like bean soup with meat in it makes me scratch my head