Cray Fish boil

joec

joec

New member
Well my grand daughter and her husband drove down to Louisiana to visit her father and brought us back 50 lbs at a $1 per pound of live mud bugs. It is snowing here today so well will probably boiling them up tomorrow. At the moment they are in on the back porch where the temp is about 36 deg. We will probably boil half and freeze the rest.
 

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i have been craving mudbugs for the last two years... cant get them here unless you buy frozen ones from malaysia or some foreign county.lol

great deal on a dollar a pound.

as for freezing them, they would make it that far in my house..lol
 
Nope but you are in Ohio hop in your car and drive on down. We have all the stuff to boil them up on hold till the weather lifts. As long as they are covered with damp burlap and keep between 31 to 45 degrees they will live for 3 days. Can't use them dead though so no telling how many we will lose but usually not many.
 
Not to be a know-it-all but I believe you should cook them while still alive :neutral:. I cut/pasted from one website on crawfish:
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1][FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]Crawfish are PERISHABLE and should be cooked the same day you receive them. If you are not going to cook the crawfish immediately, you must keep them cool & damp

1. When you receive your crawfish take the sack out of the box, leave the crawfish in the sack, & hose the entire sack with fresh water. Do not leave the sack submerged in water. The crawfish are restricted in the sack & will drown.
2. Place the sack(s) back into the box & lay a bag of ice loosely on top of the crawfish sack(s) and close the box.
3. Leave the box in a cool damp area such as your garage/cellar or kitchen. If you live in an area where the temperature does not exceed 50 degrees then you may leave the box outside. However, dampen the crawfish first. Do not leave the crawfish outside if the temperature is freezing or below![/SIZE][/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]
 
Yes I'm aware pugger and they will be fine on my back porch through today. We have sacked them up and they are 24 hours old now and can be keep alive an healthy up to 3 full days. At any rate tomorrow we will be purging them in salt water and boiling them. I'm also aware not to add them to the pot if they are dead but after they are boiled they can be frozen however I don't expect much will be left after my kids get here. It is snowing here at the moment but a bit too warm for the snow to stand but it is about 40 degree high today and tonight I will move them to my garage.
 
So am I to understand that you have to sort through all those and remove the dead ones before cooking? Do the dead ones float, so all you would have to do is put them in water and skim the dead ones?
That's a lot of crayfish. I'm thinking there must be an easy way to tell if any are dead... maybe not though.
 
joec said:
Nope but you are in Ohio hop in your car and drive on down. We have all the stuff to boil them up on hold till the weather lifts. As long as they are covered with damp burlap and keep between 31 to 45 degrees they will live for 3 days. Can't use them dead though so no telling how many we will lose but usually not many.
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Road Trip!!!!! :mrgreen:
 
chowhound said:
So am I to understand that you have to sort through all those and remove the dead ones before cooking? Do the dead ones float, so all you would have to do is put them in water and skim the dead ones?
That's a lot of crayfish. I'm thinking there must be an easy way to tell if any are dead... maybe not though.
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I purge them in a salt water solution in small batches and at that time can remove the dead ones then. This purging only takes about 2 to 3 minutes then rinse and ready to go to the pot. Even with a 60 qt pot this will probably be cooked in two to three batches. We did bag them up as I got them unbagged as you see right out of the traps. They gave me the bags seperately. We didn't find a single dead one so far so good. Right now the back porch temp is 37 degrees so it is still good.
 
joec said:
I purge them in a salt water solution in small batches and at that time can remove the dead ones then. This purging only takes about 2 to 3 minutes then rinse and ready to go to the pot. Even with a 60 qt pot this will probably be cooked in two to three batches. We did bag them up as I got them unbagged as you see right out of the traps. They gave me the bags seperately. We didn't find a single dead one so far so good. Right now the back porch temp is 37 degrees so it is still good.
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Do the dead ones float when you are purging them or do you have to sort through them? Or is just a "little dead" OK? lol

I've only seen them cooked on TV in these huge pots and in huge batches and still can't fathom having to sort through them to see which ones are still breathing. Clams of course are a different animal, after they're cooked you know which ones were dead as you grab them one by one to eat.
Educate this Yank.
 
The dead ones will float the top and a little dead is completely dead. I have 3 crawfish boil setups here with a super burner for it. A 60 qt, 75 qt and an 80 qt. Oh and yes let us hope they are dead after one cooks them but you can tell as they are pretty active when alive, especially if you touch them. Just taking them out of the cooler to bag them, with gloves we got a few good grabs. They are pretty aggressive sometimes.

Here is a site that explains it all pretty much exactly like I do it. http://whatscookingamerica.net/Seafood/CrawfishBoil.htm
 
<drool>

MMMMMMMMMMM

Bisque, gumbo, etouffee, pie, fett. alf., etc., ad nauseum.

Road Trip!!!!

</drool>
 
It there is any left after tomorrow with my kids and grand kids showing up the other dishes will be made for sure. I also got about 15 lbs of good Andouille sausage with the crawfish as well as a few lbs of the boil (spice blend). It takes about a 1lb of the boil per 15 lbs of crawfish.
 
joec said:
Yes I'm aware pugger and they will be fine on my back porch through today. We have sacked them up and they are 24 hours old now and can be keep alive an healthy up to 3 full days. At any rate tomorrow we will be purging them in salt water and boiling them. I'm also aware not to add them to the pot if they are dead but after they are boiled they can be frozen however I don't expect much will be left after my kids get here. It is snowing here at the moment but a bit too warm for the snow to stand but it is about 40 degree high today and tonight I will move them to my garage.
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Cool :thumb:

I am excited for you folks, as I've eaten crawfish for the last 3 Fridays in a row - accompanied by the ice-coldest Abita beer I've ever consumed. :beer:
 
We lived in South East Texas for 10 years and Lousianna for 2 years, pugger. I've sure eaten my share of coon ass and Tex Mex cooking in my life. :wink:
 
from what i understand, after you are done cooking a crawfish, if its tail is curled then it was alive when you started, if it stays flat and straight then it was dead from the beginning

i learned in LA never to eat the flat ones..maybe i was misinformed..lol
 
BamsBBQ said:
from what i understand, after you are done cooking a crawfish, if its tail is curled then it was alive when you started, if it stays flat and straight then it was dead from the beginning

i learned in LA never to eat the flat ones..maybe i was misinformed..lol
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To be honest with you Jeff, I never noticed always to busy stuffing them in my mouth. :shock: We are all sqaure away, and ready to go with them tomorrow first thing. It will probably be a day of cooking, eating and cleaning with one large meal. I know my grand daughter got about the same and they are doing thiers as we speak, they have my crawfish pot. They will bring it back tomorrow but DW and I will pass on theirs tonight, since I couldn't handle it two days in a row. I have about 10 people over tomorrow to help us though so that works out to about 5 lbs per person plus corn, potatoes and sausage. What ever is left over we will break down for some other dish this week end.
 
Crawfish are in abundance here too. It's like a rite of Spring...crawfish, beer and a little zydeco on the side.

Have a great day!
 
I hate you for posting this! Do you know how much I LOOOOOOOOOOVE crawfish!?!?!? A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :heart::heart::heart::heart::heart::heart:

If crawfish was a woman it would be Jenna Fisher :thumb:
 
Hard to explain Derek but perhaps a cross between shrimp and lobster. They are a lot of work and your thumbs will get sore in a hurry but I can probably eat a few pounds by myself with no trouble at all. Oh and crayfish (commonly called crawfish) are fresh water with the average of this batch being about 4" long from head to tail.
 
I use to catch them when I was little. Sounds like a blast, Joe. Enjoy! You are making me want to go down to Fat Fish Blue, the local restaurant that serves them. See. http://fatfishblue.com/about.html Robert Lockwood Jr use to be a regular there, may he rest in peace. See also. http://www.robertlockwood.com/ Mr. Lockwood loved my sweet potato pie. When his first wife Annie was still alive, I had the pleasure of making him a birthday pie. I never saw him smile wider.
 
Chicago man drive on down, if you leave tomorrow morning about you should get here just in time for serving. :bounce:
 
PieSusan said:
I use to catch them when I was little. Sounds like a blast, Joe. Enjoy! You are making me want to go down to Fat Fish Blue, the local restaurant that serves them. See. http://fatfishblue.com/about.html Robert Lockwood Jr use to be a regular there, may he rest in peace. See also. http://www.robertlockwood.com/ Mr. Lockwood loved my sweet potato pie. When his first wife Annie was still alive, I had the pleasure of making him a birthday pie. I never saw him smile wider.
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I love them but the last time I had them was my last visit to my daughter in Louisiana. She died the following year and I haven't been back except to bury her since then. I miss a lot about Louisiana and Texas but will never personally go back again. At any rate if your package arrives as it should tomorrow dinner will be complete, if not I have a nice lemon meringue pie we picked up this morning from a local bakery.
 
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