Crawfish?

[toughguy]

I was watching American Idol and they had a bit on there about crawfish. Anyways, it reminded me of a party I went to a few years back where they served up a giant pile of crawfish. They had them shipped from Louisiana. If I remember right they were live and came with spices and instructions how to cook them. They were VERY spicy and tasted great!! Has anyone ever done this? If so do you remember how much it cost and where you got them from?

[reinhard1]

i have seen them at the County Market in Andover. they came frozen in plastic bags. they may have them in other stores as well. i would call the meat dept. to see if they have them. County Market actualy advertized them at one time. good luck.

[jentz]

I was watching American Idol and they had a bit on there about crawfish. Anyways, it reminded me of a party I went to a few years back where they served up a giant pile of crawfish. They had them shipped from Louisiana. If I remember right they were live and came with spices and instructions how to cook them. They were VERY spicy and tasted great!! Has anyone ever done this? If so do you remember how much it cost and where you got them from?

Last summer a friend and myself made two traps,we had 1 minnow trap.In the crow river by Spicer,Mn we set them two days later we had a 5 gal bucket full,Bacon was the bait.Tasty little buggers!

[iland99]

I'm going to take a whirl at trapping them myself this this summer. We used to have crawfish boils all the time when I lived in Houston, you could buy live crawdads all over down there when they were in season. I don't know how successful I'll be at trapping them around here but it's worth a shot, they're tasty little bugs!

[toughguy]

I agree. Trapping would be fun too. Do they get as big here? Beg enough to eat?

[MedBoy]

also, are they the same species which are famous in louisiana? those lil buggers get HUGE, and their shells are a bit thicker.

[pikestabber]

Our domestic species are generally much smaller than the ones you find in LA, but the invasive Rusty Crayfish we have often reach the same size. I trap them every year and we have several boils throughout the summer. On lakes that are truly "infested" we can pull traps every hour (literally, after two hours, they will be so full that no other crayfish can get in). Be sure to read and thoroughly understand regulations before going after Rusties...one female with fertilized eggs tucked under her tail can start a whole infestation on another body of water.

[ThunderLund78]

Would like to try if I have a "Rusty" Lake close by. Does the DNR have a listing of infested waters like they do for Milfoil and Zeebs in the reg book?

Also, is it straight into the boiling water like lobster or do you let them sit in clean water for a day or two to let them clean themselves out like a turtle?

[DonBo]

Lots of streams and small rivers have them. Doesn't take long to get enough for a good meal.

[nofishfisherman]

I had an amazing plate of crawfish when I was in Spain a few years ago. They came as a free tapas when I ordered a good glass of wine. The wine cost me maybe $2.

They were served in a thin tomato sauce and were delicious.

[Mid-Lake Rock]

Would like to try if I have a "Rusty" Lake close by. Does the DNR have a listing of infested waters like they do for Milfoil and Zeebs in the reg book?

Also, is it straight into the boiling water like lobster or do you let them sit in clean water for a day or two to let them clean themselves out like a turtle?

The are found mostly in the central and northern lakes. There are a lot of them in Lake Vermilion. I've watched guys trap them up there. A friend of mine cooks them at Vermilion and doesn't soak them in clean water - although I've heard that people will do that to try to improve taste. All you really need is some crawfish boil seasoning or Old Bay. I'd call the DNR office in your area and ask where they can be found in your neck of the woods. It is amazing how much damage they can do to the aquatic vegetation in a lake.

[Walleyehooker]

Ive never made them but I heard you should purge them before you cook them. Not sure how you do that either but Im sure someone on here would know. I think I saw on Minnesota Bound one time there were a couple guys that would harvest them and sell them but they said there wasnt much of a market for them around here like there is down south.

[pikestabber]

Ask 100 people and you will get 100 different answers on purging and whether or not it is necessary...or what it even means to purge. To some, "purging" is adding a bunch of salt to the water in your holding tank so that the crayfish "vomit up" their last meal and it supposedly helps clean out their digestive system, etc. The reality is, it only increases the mortality rate (crayfish can't breathe in saltwater any better than other freshwater fish can). To truly "purge" a crayfish, you would need to keep it in a tank with aerators and let nature takes its course...about 2-3 days for everything to work its way through...that's if you can keep the crayfish from cannibalizing each other (which they will do after about a day). In any case, when you peel and eat them, you aren't dealing with the intestine anyhow, so I see no point in it.

For my part, I don't purge them at all and there is no noticeable difference in taste. Remove them from your traps, take out any sickly-looking crayfish, put them in a big tub or cooler and spray them down with a hose. Dump the water and repeat until your water is running clear in the tub/cooler, and they are ready to boil. If you are not boiling them that day, keep them in a cool place and use an aerator. On one particular batch of about 50 lbs of crayfish, I took a chance without an aerator and I lost over half in one night. On my next batch of 50 lbs, in nearly identical conditions, I lost ZERO with an aerator. I won't try to hold them more than a couple hours without one (just a cheap, portable, $15 air box will do the trick).

There are 10 million crayfish boil variations, too. Here is what I use, and I really like it (even those who don't like the crayfish--very few and far between at that--love the vegetable variety and the flavor you get from the aromatic additions to the boil:

INGREDIENTS

• 4 gallons of cold water

• 3 medium onions, peeled and quartered

• 1 head of garlic (approx. 10 cloves), peeled and halved

• 2 lemons, cut into quarters

• 1/2 cup cooking oil

• Salt, to taste (I use A LOT, but to each their own)

• .7 ounces of cayenne pepper (one small jar)

• 2 (3-ounce) bags of Zatarain's crab boil

• 1 bottle of Zatarain's liquid crab boil

• 12 medium red potatoes, split in half

• 8 ears of corn, husked and cut into thirds

• 2 containers of button mushrooms, halved (optional)

• 2 packages of quartered Andouille sausage or Kielbasa (optional)

• 1 bag of frozen Brussel sprouts (optional)

• 25 pounds of live, clean crayfish

DIRECTIONS

• In a large stock pot, bring water to a rolling boil. Add onions, garlic, lemons (squeeze juice into pot, then add lemon rinds), cooking oil, salt, pepper, and both varieties of Zatarain's crab boil—boil for 15 minutes.

• Add red potatoes and cook for 7 minutes.

• Add corn, mushrooms, sausage, and Brussel sprouts and cook 7 more minutes.

Remove all ingredients to serving dishes, then add crayfish in batches—boil for no more than 3 minutes. After boiling the crayfish, remove immediately, allow water to come to a rolling boil again, and add remaining batches of crayfish until done. Serve hot.

NOTE: Most recipes call for you to cook the crayfish with all the veggies and other goodies, kill the heat and cover the pot, and then let everything seep for 15 minutes to a half hour. After trying it several times I firmly believe all you are doing is overcooking the crayfish and making them 10x harder to peel. Crayfish is a lot like shrimp and is best done simple and fast. Taking all the veggies out first allows you to cook more crayfish at a time, and the flavor of the water from all of the aromatics will definitely come through. My two cents...

[IamZombie]

If you want live crawfish from Louisiana it's going to cost you.

I've got family down near New Orleans, they usually get their seafood from

http://www.fishermanscoveseafood.com/

They ship fedex overnight, but it's going to cost you.

[charliepete]

It's also techincially illegal to import live crawfish in Minnesota as well.

[Archerysniper]

Ask 100 people and you will get 100 different answers on purging and whether or not it is necessary...or what it even means to purge. To some, "purging" is adding a bunch of salt to the water in your holding tank so that the crayfish "vomit up" their last meal and it supposedly helps clean out their digestive system, etc. The reality is, it only increases the mortality rate (crayfish can't breathe in saltwater any better than other freshwater fish can). To truly "purge" a crayfish, you would need to keep it in a tank with aerators and let nature takes its course...about 2-3 days for everything to work its way through...that's if you can keep the crayfish from cannibalizing each other (which they will do after about a day). In any case, when you peel and eat them, you aren't dealing with the intestine anyhow, so I see no point in it.

For my part, I don't purge them at all and there is no noticeable difference in taste. Remove them from your traps, take out any sickly-looking crayfish, put them in a big tub or cooler and spray them down with a hose. Dump the water and repeat until your water is running clear in the tub/cooler, and they are ready to boil. If you are not boiling them that day, keep them in a cool place and use an aerator. On one particular batch of about 50 lbs of crayfish, I took a chance without an aerator and I lost over half in one night. On my next batch of 50 lbs, in nearly identical conditions, I lost ZERO with an aerator. I won't try to hold them more than a couple hours without one (just a cheap, portable, $15 air box will do the trick).

There are 10 million crayfish boil variations, too. Here is what I use, and I really like it (even those who don't like the crayfish--very few and far between at that--love the vegetable variety and the flavor you get from the aromatic additions to the boil:

INGREDIENTS

• 4 gallons of cold water

• 3 medium onions, peeled and quartered

• 1 head of garlic (approx. 10 cloves), peeled and halved

• 2 lemons, cut into quarters

• 1/2 cup cooking oil

• Salt, to taste (I use A LOT, but to each their own)

• .7 ounces of cayenne pepper (one small jar)

• 2 (3-ounce) bags of Zatarain's crab boil

• 1 bottle of Zatarain's liquid crab boil

• 12 medium red potatoes, split in half

• 8 ears of corn, husked and cut into thirds

• 2 containers of button mushrooms, halved (optional)

• 2 packages of quartered Andouille sausage or Kielbasa (optional)

• 1 bag of frozen Brussel sprouts (optional)

• 25 pounds of live, clean crayfish

DIRECTIONS

• In a large stock pot, bring water to a rolling boil. Add onions, garlic, lemons (squeeze juice into pot, then add lemon rinds), cooking oil, salt, pepper, and both varieties of Zatarain's crab boil—boil for 15 minutes.

• Add red potatoes and cook for 7 minutes.

• Add corn, mushrooms, sausage, and Brussel sprouts and cook 7 more minutes.

Remove all ingredients to serving dishes, then add crayfish in batches—boil for no more than 3 minutes. After boiling the crayfish, remove immediately, allow water to come to a rolling boil again, and add remaining batches of crayfish until done. Serve hot.

NOTE: Most recipes call for you to cook the crayfish with all the veggies and other goodies, kill the heat and cover the pot, and then let everything seep for 15 minutes to a half hour. After trying it several times I firmly believe all you are doing is overcooking the crayfish and making them 10x harder to peel. Crayfish is a lot like shrimp and is best done simple and fast. Taking all the veggies out first allows you to cook more crayfish at a time, and the flavor of the water from all of the aromatics will definitely come through. My two cents...

Once they are ready to remove from the pot add ice to the boil it will cool it down quicker and causes them to absorb/suck in more of the juice before serving.

[Gordie]

I have purged nightcrawlers before eating but thats different topic