No need to salt purge, just rinse the sacks down well. I like to put them in a cooler while still in the sack and run some water on them while leaving the cooler drain open.

2 bags of Chackbay
3/4 of a large Mortons salt container
4 - 12 ounce bottle of bay leaves
1 - 1.75 ounce bottle of cayenne pepper (Buy 4 bottles and add heat if needed)
7 large quartered onions
12 lemons
6 heads of garlic cut in half
red potatoes
3 - stick of butter
Add everything to pot besides potatoes, mushrooms, sausage, and crawfish.
Bring to boil
Add halved potatoes, let boil for 5 minutes
Add butter, crawfish, sausage, and mushrooms
Bring back to boil
Turn off heat and let soak for 30 minutes, taste testing every 10 minutes. The longer they soak, the more heat they'll have.

Bring water to boil
Add seasoning & lemons
Boil potatoes & sausage, then remove once cooked
Re-up on seasoning
Boil crawfish until done, kill fire, let soak for 15 minutes then into the cooler with more seasoning on top

Enjoy!

Keep
It
Simple
Stupid

By: a true Cajun (my dad)

beer

I Butter is a must......spice is up to you.

When the boil pot starts to steam.......shut the fire down.

The real key is to soak in water cooler than boiling.......without diluting the spice. 145 degrees is the magic soak number.

I have a two pot system, but if you only have one......freeze a couple of gallon milk jugs or two liter soda bottles of water and put them in the pot to stop the cooking process. Throwing in ice dilutes the spice.

Physics says the cold(ER) spicey water will migrate to the hotter bugs.....physics is undefeated.

But, the point is to stop the cooking/boiling and soak 'til your spice is good. Like I said, I use two pots, but 1pot is doable.......chunk some frozen non leaking, non diluting vessels into the boil.

Good luck.......and Laissez les bons temps rouler!

^ This poster knows things.

I always do 5 pounds per person.

My dad and my grandpa (RIP) would look at me like a cow looking at a new gate if I suggested to put butter in the pot or to drop frozen water jugs in there.

Everybody does it a little different - kind of like chili or gumbo. Can't say one way is right or wrong, other than the fact that my way is right and your way is wrong!

This is how we generally do it, more or less:

Fill the large pot half full with fresh water, place on cooker, and start the fire. Place the lid on the pot and bring water to a roling boil.

While you wait for water to boil, rinse the crawfish with fresh cool water until draining water is clear. You do not need to purge them with salt. Rinsing will do just fine. But if you want to add salt, no biggie. Just remember that your seasoning has salt in it as well and be careful to not oversalt.

Add liquid seafood boil to water. Use what the label says to use for this part of the cook. Let the boiling water mix it well for a minute or so. Turn the heat down to about half after you get to a good roll and are well mixed on the seasoning.

Drop in all onions (halved), the potatoes, bay leaves and fresh garlic. Let this cook, keeping an eye on the potatoes. (Check for doneness by stabbing with a sharp knife or fork. If it goes in easy, it is cooked. Hint: Do not overcook potatoes, slightly undercook them because they will continue to steam and cook in the ice chest. You don't want to end up with mashed potatoes. Well, maybe you do, but I don't. Cook them until you can push a fork in and it meets resistance about 1/3 of the way through.) If you want to add sausage (I recommend it), do it here as well. Doesn't have to be andoulli - pretty much any good sausage is going to be awesome after being boiled in the mix.

When the potatoes are almost done, add the corn and mushrooms. Mushrooms are done when they are tender through, corn is done about the same amount of time. After they have cooked, place the vegetables in a small clean ice chest .

Turn the heat up on the burner. Add more spice to the water - you want about 2x what the label on your bottle says you should have. Add the lemons (halved) and squeeze the juice in the water. Then add the lemons to the water. When the water comes to a boil, place the crawfish into the basket and put the basket in the pot. I've also added honey at this point. Put in your butter here.

When the water comes back to a rolling boil - keep a very close eye on this part (time it) - let it boil for 2 minutes and turn off the fire. Let the crawfish soak for a few minutes (2 or so) and then remove. Hint: Kill the boil by adding cold - a frozen jug works well, just want something that is a heat sink that won't alter or dilute the mix. Then let the crawfish soak. Most of the crawfish will sink to the bottom and fill with spicy water.

Remove the Crawfish from the pot and pour into an ice chest and let steam for 5 minutes. This is where the argument usually starts - to dust or not to dust. I actually like a light dust because in order to eat crawfish, one must use their hands. The dust gets all over your fingers and adds a touch of seasoning to the meat while you are peeling. If you only season here and not the boil, you suck at life. Use more or less spice to your taste.

Enjoy - serve with cold beer and good friends. Hard to beat a good crawfish boil and gathering.

You must end up doing all the work yourself sweating your ass off while everyone else parties.
You must get told by random people the entire time "this is how I do it!" while they never actually provide help.
You must drink beer, snack a bit, but only eat the last batch you do.