Cooking seems to be one of the favorite pastimes for "Us Guys" here on B31. I spend a good bit of summer time at our river place cooking for my friend and family.
I can and have boiled Crawfish on many occasions but have not always been satisfied with my results, so the most reasonable thing to do is ask the pros.........
My sons birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. For his party I want to cook Crawfish and invite a BUNCH (another southern term for Mikeys dictionary) of guys and gals over to celebrate with us.
I am asking for any of you Crawfish Cooking Experts to share , with me, your methods of preparing and cooking these delectable little creatures and extending an invitation to you guys to attend our Crawfish Boil.............will be 2 weeks from yesterday.
As always I thank you
Harry
Polling the experts
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Harry Babb
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2354
- Joined: Jun 30th, '06, 21:45
- Location: Fairhope Al
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Harry Babb
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2354
- Joined: Jun 30th, '06, 21:45
- Location: Fairhope Al
- Contact:
I've tried Crawfish from all around...........down in Florida.........fair at best.....several guys around town here all have their "Secret Recipe" again..........pretty good.
I once knew a guy from Cecilia, La that cooked the best I ever had hands down.
Never tried Aquavit...........but Coors sure goes good with a plate of these little critters.
Harry
I once knew a guy from Cecilia, La that cooked the best I ever had hands down.
Never tried Aquavit...........but Coors sure goes good with a plate of these little critters.
Harry
hb
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Harry Babb
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- Posts: 2354
- Joined: Jun 30th, '06, 21:45
- Location: Fairhope Al
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Thanks
He will be 29..........I really look more forward to my kids partys these days than the ones years ago when we went to Chuckys Cheese..........feed these kids and have plenty of beer on tap and they will entertain you for hours..........they have just endless sources of energy and loads of fun
Harry
He will be 29..........I really look more forward to my kids partys these days than the ones years ago when we went to Chuckys Cheese..........feed these kids and have plenty of beer on tap and they will entertain you for hours..........they have just endless sources of energy and loads of fun
Harry
hb
....And life is goodHarry Babb wrote:Thanks
He will be 29..........I really look more forward to my kids partys these days than the ones years ago when we went to Chuckys Cheese..........feed these kids and have plenty of beer on tap and they will entertain you for hours..........they have just endless sources of energy and loads of fun
Harry
Harry,
I've avoided answering this up til now for two reasons:
#1) I'm no expert
#2) There is no short answer to this.
But I'm sitting around, waiting for for various things to break free, and judging from my whaler post, I've got plenty of time to talk a little crawfish.
And, maybe the REAL experts will speak up once they read all the blasphemy that I do to them litttle bugs... allthough, I have had some south FL transplanted coonasses at some of my boils, and have had some surprising compliments from them- mostly regarding the flavors that I impart into the crawfish, instead of just red pepper & saltiness.
There seems to be two schools on the boil method itself...
There are the guys who get the pot to a roilin' boil dump in a large quantity of crawfish, and then shut it down, let it sit for a 5 to 10 minutes and pull out the basket, and get down.
Then, there are the ones who never shut the pot down, smaller batches, but more of them, and they are always pipin' hot. This is how I usually do it, unless I need a break for a while, then I'll revert to the first method.
Boil ingredients:
Besides the crawfish, I always like to have little red new potatos, fresh quatered sweet corn, lots of 'scalped' whole bulbs of garlic, plenty of sliced andouille, halved lemons, and halved mushrooms on occasion.
Spices:
Everytime I order crawfish ( cajuncrawfish.com, cajungrocier.com, lacrawfish.com ) they always include their "house" spices. These spices work fine, you can obtain plenty of red pepper heat, and saltiness. But a few years ago, I started playing with making my own, and have become VERY happy with the results, much more complexities in the flavor. here's a brief rundown of my crawfish seasoning. Keep in mind this is no recipie, I never measure anything, so the ratios are very approximate... and this would roughly do about 60lbs of crawfish.
I also grow much of this stuff myself, so I'm not sure how readily available it is in the s.market.
Cayenne peppers, freshly dried... about 3/4 of a gallon sized ziploc full.
Habanero (scotch bonnet) peppers, freshly dried... 5 to 10 peppers
Garlic powder... a bunch
Onion powder...not as much, maybe 1/4 as the garlic
Paprika, powdered is fine...a bunch
Salt... about the same as the garlic powder, add more as needed.
Allspice, whole dry berries... 2 to 3oz
Cinnamon sticks... 6 to 8
Nutmeg (whole)... 3 or 4 nuts
Thyme... quite a bit (2oz??)
I use a large coffee bean grinder to mill up the spices... Simply put the cayennes, habaneros, allspice, cinnamon sticks (break in half or quaters first), nutmeg, and dried thyme im the mill, and let it rip. Of course, with the amount of peppers, you'll have to do a couple of rounds with just peppers (hold your breath when transferring the ground product into a bag). When it's all mixed up, combine it in a gallon ziploc with the garlic, salt, paprika, and onion powder, and shake it up good. It'll look roughly like blackening seasoning, a shade more brown.
Another technique I've come up with is to make a "tea" in the boil pot about an hour before the first batch...
Lemme explain:
Often times the first few batches haven't quite developed the flavor I'm looking for, so this is what I've been doing to get 'em right from the very start.
Put about 2 gallons of water in the pot, and crank up the burner...
Cut a few lemons and/or limes in half
slice the top off of three bulbs of garlic
slice several (10 or so) cayennes in half (lengthwise)
slice 3 or 4 habaneros in half lengthwise
Throw all of this in, have a beer, let it get to a boil, have a beer, and let it boil for about 20 minutes, and shut it down. Remove all the peppers, and citrus, leave the garlic in for the first batch.
Boilin'
Turn the burner back on, fill the rest of the pot with water,add about 1/4 of your seasoning, and have a beer. Once it gets back to a boil, throw in the potatoes (the potatoes and garlic need the longest cooking time- when the garlic is done proper, you can just squeeze the bottom of the bulb, and the cloves will come right out of the sliced top all soft and buttery.) After a few minutes throw in the mushrooms, the andouille, and the corn, have a beer, and throw in the crawfish... let it all boil for about 5 minutes and pull it out, dump it all on several beer flats, or newspaper, and enjoy like crazy...with beer.
Probably the most important thing is never dump the crawfish in unless the pot is at a full boil. They'll be mushy if that is done, kinda like trying to fry fish before the oil is hot enough...
SO that's about it... I fully expect reprimands and insults from the boys around coonassland. But that's how I do it, never any complaints from anyone whos ate 'em, that's fer-sho.
I've avoided answering this up til now for two reasons:
#1) I'm no expert
#2) There is no short answer to this.
But I'm sitting around, waiting for for various things to break free, and judging from my whaler post, I've got plenty of time to talk a little crawfish.
And, maybe the REAL experts will speak up once they read all the blasphemy that I do to them litttle bugs... allthough, I have had some south FL transplanted coonasses at some of my boils, and have had some surprising compliments from them- mostly regarding the flavors that I impart into the crawfish, instead of just red pepper & saltiness.
There seems to be two schools on the boil method itself...
There are the guys who get the pot to a roilin' boil dump in a large quantity of crawfish, and then shut it down, let it sit for a 5 to 10 minutes and pull out the basket, and get down.
Then, there are the ones who never shut the pot down, smaller batches, but more of them, and they are always pipin' hot. This is how I usually do it, unless I need a break for a while, then I'll revert to the first method.
Boil ingredients:
Besides the crawfish, I always like to have little red new potatos, fresh quatered sweet corn, lots of 'scalped' whole bulbs of garlic, plenty of sliced andouille, halved lemons, and halved mushrooms on occasion.
Spices:
Everytime I order crawfish ( cajuncrawfish.com, cajungrocier.com, lacrawfish.com ) they always include their "house" spices. These spices work fine, you can obtain plenty of red pepper heat, and saltiness. But a few years ago, I started playing with making my own, and have become VERY happy with the results, much more complexities in the flavor. here's a brief rundown of my crawfish seasoning. Keep in mind this is no recipie, I never measure anything, so the ratios are very approximate... and this would roughly do about 60lbs of crawfish.
I also grow much of this stuff myself, so I'm not sure how readily available it is in the s.market.
Cayenne peppers, freshly dried... about 3/4 of a gallon sized ziploc full.
Habanero (scotch bonnet) peppers, freshly dried... 5 to 10 peppers
Garlic powder... a bunch
Onion powder...not as much, maybe 1/4 as the garlic
Paprika, powdered is fine...a bunch
Salt... about the same as the garlic powder, add more as needed.
Allspice, whole dry berries... 2 to 3oz
Cinnamon sticks... 6 to 8
Nutmeg (whole)... 3 or 4 nuts
Thyme... quite a bit (2oz??)
I use a large coffee bean grinder to mill up the spices... Simply put the cayennes, habaneros, allspice, cinnamon sticks (break in half or quaters first), nutmeg, and dried thyme im the mill, and let it rip. Of course, with the amount of peppers, you'll have to do a couple of rounds with just peppers (hold your breath when transferring the ground product into a bag). When it's all mixed up, combine it in a gallon ziploc with the garlic, salt, paprika, and onion powder, and shake it up good. It'll look roughly like blackening seasoning, a shade more brown.
Another technique I've come up with is to make a "tea" in the boil pot about an hour before the first batch...
Lemme explain:
Often times the first few batches haven't quite developed the flavor I'm looking for, so this is what I've been doing to get 'em right from the very start.
Put about 2 gallons of water in the pot, and crank up the burner...
Cut a few lemons and/or limes in half
slice the top off of three bulbs of garlic
slice several (10 or so) cayennes in half (lengthwise)
slice 3 or 4 habaneros in half lengthwise
Throw all of this in, have a beer, let it get to a boil, have a beer, and let it boil for about 20 minutes, and shut it down. Remove all the peppers, and citrus, leave the garlic in for the first batch.
Boilin'
Turn the burner back on, fill the rest of the pot with water,add about 1/4 of your seasoning, and have a beer. Once it gets back to a boil, throw in the potatoes (the potatoes and garlic need the longest cooking time- when the garlic is done proper, you can just squeeze the bottom of the bulb, and the cloves will come right out of the sliced top all soft and buttery.) After a few minutes throw in the mushrooms, the andouille, and the corn, have a beer, and throw in the crawfish... let it all boil for about 5 minutes and pull it out, dump it all on several beer flats, or newspaper, and enjoy like crazy...with beer.
Probably the most important thing is never dump the crawfish in unless the pot is at a full boil. They'll be mushy if that is done, kinda like trying to fry fish before the oil is hot enough...
SO that's about it... I fully expect reprimands and insults from the boys around coonassland. But that's how I do it, never any complaints from anyone whos ate 'em, that's fer-sho.
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In Memory of Vicroy
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2340
- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 09:19
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Naw, I'm here, but don't boil crawfish any more, too much trouble. We buy them (and blue crabs) boiled from TNT Seafood on Hwy. 22 between Springfield and Ponchatoula, LA.....best in the world. He's getting about $2 lb. right now and he almost always has them hot. Will get some tomorrow on our way to the camp.
Been weeding flower beds.....great sport.
UV
Been weeding flower beds.....great sport.
UV
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Tom
- Senior Member
- Posts: 197
- Joined: Jun 29th, '06, 09:22
- Location: Somewhere over the 100 fathom curve, Texas
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Harry, lemme help a bit. This time of year, If I'm not fishing due to wind, I'm boiling for 20-40 people every saturday afternoon. I too struggled with the technique but have finally gotten happy with my results. Here's my way..
I'll give you a per bag, 35# or so recipe. Will feed 7-10 people or lots more Yankees.
I bag crawfish
5 lemons halved
5 oranges quartered
5 onions halved
8 oz cooking oil or Corrosion X
all beef sausage, as much as you'd like. I usually have .5 lb per person
2 lb bag "Slap Yo' Mama" brand dry seasoning
1 large bottle Louisiana hot sauce
Cayenne to taste
Purge the crawfish until the water runs clear. I don't use salt but some do. I put my bugs in a very large cooler and run water until full. I stir by hand to dislodge mud, weeds, etc. Drain the water and repeat until the water runs clear and debris free.
In as large a pot as you can, boil enough water with above seasonings to cover bugs completely. At rolling boil, put bugs in and cover. return to boil and shut off heat, cover and wait 20-30 minutes while they soak.
That's it but you gotta use clean bugs. This will create a pretty spicy taste but most of the adults I'm around have no problem. The oil helps with the peeling. You can also use vinegar but I don't.
Now, in addition you got to add some side dishes to the pot. I generally use:
button mushrooms
cauliflower
asparagus
carrots- always a hit
corn
small new potatos
I've got 6 sacks reserved for saturday as the MF wind continues to blow. They're running $1.67 for Jumbo select down here.
I don't do the Aquavit. I had a Norwegian college roomate and saw way too much of that fuel.
I'll give you a per bag, 35# or so recipe. Will feed 7-10 people or lots more Yankees.
I bag crawfish
5 lemons halved
5 oranges quartered
5 onions halved
8 oz cooking oil or Corrosion X
all beef sausage, as much as you'd like. I usually have .5 lb per person
2 lb bag "Slap Yo' Mama" brand dry seasoning
1 large bottle Louisiana hot sauce
Cayenne to taste
Purge the crawfish until the water runs clear. I don't use salt but some do. I put my bugs in a very large cooler and run water until full. I stir by hand to dislodge mud, weeds, etc. Drain the water and repeat until the water runs clear and debris free.
In as large a pot as you can, boil enough water with above seasonings to cover bugs completely. At rolling boil, put bugs in and cover. return to boil and shut off heat, cover and wait 20-30 minutes while they soak.
That's it but you gotta use clean bugs. This will create a pretty spicy taste but most of the adults I'm around have no problem. The oil helps with the peeling. You can also use vinegar but I don't.
Now, in addition you got to add some side dishes to the pot. I generally use:
button mushrooms
cauliflower
asparagus
carrots- always a hit
corn
small new potatos
I've got 6 sacks reserved for saturday as the MF wind continues to blow. They're running $1.67 for Jumbo select down here.
I don't do the Aquavit. I had a Norwegian college roomate and saw way too much of that fuel.
Viva la Presidente!
Man, I'd kill to get 'em for the prices ya'll do...
I'm paying around $160 for 30lbs. That does include next day priority shipping, but shit! The bugs that come from cajuncrawfish.com are pre-purged too, but so what, I'll purge crawfish all day and all night to pay them prices.
This is WAY up from last year, seems like it's going to be something I can only afford to do once or twice a year in short order.
The blue crabs though... they're all over down here. Get easily get 10 to 20 lbs in a couple of creeks I know of on the outgoing tide at night. Or buy 'em from the 'crab man' up on Card Sound Rd. right next to Alabama Jacks... I've got a real good method for them...much less work than the crawfish, but not as festive...just real, real good eats.
I'm paying around $160 for 30lbs. That does include next day priority shipping, but shit! The bugs that come from cajuncrawfish.com are pre-purged too, but so what, I'll purge crawfish all day and all night to pay them prices.
This is WAY up from last year, seems like it's going to be something I can only afford to do once or twice a year in short order.
The blue crabs though... they're all over down here. Get easily get 10 to 20 lbs in a couple of creeks I know of on the outgoing tide at night. Or buy 'em from the 'crab man' up on Card Sound Rd. right next to Alabama Jacks... I've got a real good method for them...much less work than the crawfish, but not as festive...just real, real good eats.
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Harry Babb
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2354
- Joined: Jun 30th, '06, 21:45
- Location: Fairhope Al
- Contact:
Thanks Guys
The common thing between the 2 methods that you guys offered is that you both have your prefered spices and portions that you choose to use.
That's a different approach than I have ever considered.........mine has always been to buy the Crawfish and season them with Swampfire......a bag of seasoning that the seafood retailers offer.
Vic.......it is a lot of work...granted............but the camaraderie makes it worthwhile to me. There is a guy down the road that sells cooked mudbugs.........kinda nice to run down there and pickup 5 pounds for the afternoon.
I'll keep you all posted...........with pics........
Thanks for the help
Harry
The common thing between the 2 methods that you guys offered is that you both have your prefered spices and portions that you choose to use.
That's a different approach than I have ever considered.........mine has always been to buy the Crawfish and season them with Swampfire......a bag of seasoning that the seafood retailers offer.
Vic.......it is a lot of work...granted............but the camaraderie makes it worthwhile to me. There is a guy down the road that sells cooked mudbugs.........kinda nice to run down there and pickup 5 pounds for the afternoon.
I'll keep you all posted...........with pics........
Thanks for the help
Harry
hb
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In Memory Walter K
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2912
- Joined: Jun 30th, '06, 21:25
- Location: East Hampton LI, NY
- Contact:
No doubt Walter...
Just a thought here... I'd be more than willing to trade a sizable amount of some of our local reef dwellers ( live lobster, fresh hogfish, whatever... ) for some crawfish, if someone was willing to pack 'em live & overnight 'em with cold gel packs.
I know it's really a long shot, but what is commonplace for us here, might be a real treat elsewhere...
Lobster is out of season until mid/late summer, but it might be real nice to get a 'care package' around Labor Day or Thanksgiving with a bunch of FL bugs, several fresh hog fillets, maybe a tripletail or a mutton snapper to boot... Could send the fish anytime, priority overnight in styrofoam and dry ice- seperated from the fillets to keep 'em cold, but not freeze 'em...
Anyone?
Anyone?
Man, I got it bad huh? Damn crawfish...
Just a thought here... I'd be more than willing to trade a sizable amount of some of our local reef dwellers ( live lobster, fresh hogfish, whatever... ) for some crawfish, if someone was willing to pack 'em live & overnight 'em with cold gel packs.
I know it's really a long shot, but what is commonplace for us here, might be a real treat elsewhere...
Lobster is out of season until mid/late summer, but it might be real nice to get a 'care package' around Labor Day or Thanksgiving with a bunch of FL bugs, several fresh hog fillets, maybe a tripletail or a mutton snapper to boot... Could send the fish anytime, priority overnight in styrofoam and dry ice- seperated from the fillets to keep 'em cold, but not freeze 'em...
Anyone?
Anyone?
Man, I got it bad huh? Damn crawfish...
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