Cookin' Crawfish

BrotherVoodoo

So I saw crawfish werent expensive and bought some only...I don't know how to cook em.

Any good ways preferably with a grill?

robotbebop

You can eat them? I always thought crawfish were those nasty sub-lobsters that lived at the bottom of slimy rivers.

robotbebop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawfish there's a section in the article for them that describes how they're cooked in Louisiana. Actually sounds pretty good.

cooljammer00

I actually just googled to see what some good "Crawfish recipes" were. I suggest you do the same?

Lot of Cajun style stuff, apparently. Crawfish are like shrimp, right?

robotbebop

cooljammer00 wrote: »

I actually just googled to see what some good "Crawfish recipes" were. I suggest you do the same?

Lot of Cajun style stuff, apparently. Crawfish are like shrimp, right?

They're basically freshwater lobster. And they're apparently super popular in Louisiana according to that Wiki article.

Just because they're freshwater doesn't mean you can fish them out of your local river though. God knows I wouldn't eat the crawfish we have here.

Jasconius

The easiest way to cook crawfish is by *boiling* them first. These are nasty filthy things and they are typically *boiled* and then, if not eaten directly, are thrown into other recipes as a substitute for shrimp.

Go to the super market, in the spice aisle there will be Zataran's crab boil in a box. (don't get the liquid. the liquid is crap). The box is yellow and blue.

All the instructions you need are on the box.

I recommend getting some corn on the cob, red potatoes, or sausage to go with it.

You'll need a big pot.

To eat a crawfish. Two fingers on the torso, pull and twist tail. Put thumb on the underbelly of the tail, use other thumb to pry the tail shell off. Eat meat.

What do you do with the torse/head?

WELL. If you are hardcore, place torso opening to lips. Suck. Discard shell afterwards.

As stated, crawfish are filthy creatures, cook thoroughly and be prepared to possibly be grossed out.

Another note. DISPOSE OF SHELLS IMMEDIATELY. Do not leave them in the trash overnight. You will regret it. Oh god will you regret it.

Anything you can't eat, peel it, throw it in the fridge, go get some jambalaya mix from the store, and follow instructions. Don't try to just straight out eat the crawfish after its been in fridge overnight, they become pretty gamy pretty quickly.

Good dipping sauce for the crawfish/potatoes/etc is a 1 to 1 mixture of ketchup and mayonaise, a tiny bit of cayenne pepper mixed if you feel like it.


You aren't really going to grill these fuckers, unless they are the biggest goddamn crawfish in the universe. They are much bigger than the little shred of meat inside of them.

matt has a problem

Did you buy them live? I'm hoping you bought them live. If you bought them live and really want to grill them, aside from using your spatula to corral them back onto the grill when they try to skitter off you're going to have to skewer them while alive, then lay the skewer on the grill.

If you bought them not-live, and they weren't packed on ice with some kind of date that told you how long they've been dead, they're bad, throw them away.

MichaelLC

matthasaproblem wrote: »

If you bought them not-live, they're bad, throw them away.

Also, pray to our mighty lord AB, and he shall deliver!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6mfLxYQPuE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideosearch%3Fhl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8%26q%3Dcrawfish%2520alton%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dwv%26um%3D1&feature=player_embedded

BrotherVoodoo

They were on ice...so I got that going for me. Can I cook them without that Zatarans stuff?

matt has a problem

Sure, but they won't taste like much except 'fishy'. If you're grilling them, make up some kind of sauce to dip the tails in before you eat them.

Sir Carcass

Yeah, crawfish don't taste like much on their own. They're usually boiled in heavily seasoned water. I think they're pretty disgusting, personally, but some people love them.

Jasconius

Pretty much... in fact, in all years in cajun country I've never seen one served that *wasn't* boiled. You simply do not do it. Grilling them would be a tragic pain in the ass, considering even the biggest crawfish amount to a single bite of meat at best.

Unless you eat em right out of the pot, you're talking hours of prep time for something you could have made with shrimp just as easily... I mean, Crawfish do have a unique flavor, but even I, who love them, wouldn't describe is as a "great" flavor.

ceres

I live in PA, and until I was about 22 years old you could NOT have convinced me that those were food. Then I met someone from Louisiana who said that people eat them all the time and they're delicious. Some part of me still secretly believes that he was lying.

For any kind of small filter-feeder like that, I'd take the advice above and boil them before you do anything else... and if you bought them already dead and have had them more than a day, just toss them and if you're really interested, buy them live and try again.

matt has a problem

I've been to crawfish boils a few times, and they really are good. It's just a load of corn on the cob, sausage, shrimp and crawfish dumped into a huge pot with a ton of cajun seasoning, and then it boils for a while. Once everything's cooked you strain the water then dump the contents of the pot out on a table, and just start working your way through the pile. Eating crawfish is a lot of work for a tiny bit of food, but when it's done right it's delicious.

Jasconius

Personally, I think the potatoes and sausage are actually better than the crawfish themselves... and they keep better in the fridge.


If you want to try the whole boiling thing out, it's easier to start with shrimp. They are easier to peal, more meat per pound of product, and they don't go bad as quickly. The procedure is the same.