crawdad cooking

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

scuberd

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
984
Reaction score
44
Location
Honolulu, HI
# of dives
5000 - ∞
I spent some time today in a fruitless attempt to bring some crawdads (or crayfish) home for some food when a thought occured to me (and no it wasn't the first): what is a really good way to cook the little bugettes and how many do you need in order to satisfy as a meal?
 
I am not a cook, never have been, never will be. I know almost nothing about cooking and usually do not have enough patience to cook anything without walking away and letting it burn. Having said that, I have cooked a quite a few crawdads in my time.


There are numerous ways to cook them up. I won't even try any recipies due to reasons given above. I cook them much like a bunch of tiny lobsters, since this is what they basically are.

You need a lot of them to make a decent meal, and they are a lot of trouble. Bring a large pot of water to a boil with spices of your choice to add flavor. I personally like using pickeling spices with a few cloves added in, personal tastes differ. Drop the buggars in and let them cook to a nice bright orange (approx 7 min.). Take them out and let them cool under cold water, or eat them hot. Just remember that the boiling water makes them really hot on the inside.

If the ones you have gotten are large, the claws are excellant. If they are small they are just frustrating to try to get anything out of. The tail is the best part. Break off the tail above the ridges, you'll see, and grab the middle fan thing, don't have a clue what it is really called, on the end of the tail. If you give this a 90 degree twist and gently pull, the string of black stuff, enough said, will come right out. You can dip them in butter, sauce or whatever, or eat them plain. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm......


Hint about catching them, take a piece of fish or some other meat with you and leave it, or them if you have more than one, and go about your dive. Very soon they will be all over it and you can catch them. Remember that they move backwards so this is the direction that you want to block.


I'm sure others here have other ways to get and prepare them, this is just mine. Good luck and happy hunting!



Later, Hawk.
 
How much do you need??? Well, from a New Orleanian's point of view, you need LOTS!!! An easy way to cook them is to get a BIG pot of water, add some crab boil & onions, stick the suckers in an listen to them yell... After a while, add some red potatoes & little corn on the cobs. The cajun way to eat em is to spread newspaper on a picnic table & have LOTS of paper towels on hand (napkins just won't do). When everything's finished cooking, dump the pot (minus the water) on the table & just dig in. And the best part isn't the tail.. it's sucking the head!!


Cindy

:blondie:
 
I'm not a cajun but I'm married to one. I'm also, if I do say so myself, a pretty good cook.

Mud Bugs,

Generally count on a couple pounds per person. It kinda depends on how much you like them.

Take the live bugs and soak in cold salt water for 30 min or so. This is called purging. It helps clean out the lower GI tract to put it mildly. Get a big pot of boiling water and add a couple TBS of crab boil, some salt, some cayenne (a little of this goes a long way) a handful of new potatoes and a handful of corn cobs. cook until the potatoes are almost done. Add bugs. Cook until done, about 7 min. Drain and serve.

Tom
 
Ahh geezzz Yall makin me hungry!!!


Cturtle, interesting to have another CoonA*s transplanted to KY on the board. My wife is from Houma!


Mark
 
Tom's got it down pretty good, be sure to do the purge thing.
Aside from doing the basic boil, there are a couple other good ways to do 'em up, especially if you don't have at least a gallon per person.
Check out this page for some kickbutt recipes: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/divers3/food.html
There's about a dozen mudbug recipes there.
Sometimes when I get whacky I'll do up FL spineys like mudbugs.:D

Don't forget about the freshwater clams; if they come from clean water, you're in for a treat!
Hold those guys at least overnight & dump some corn meal for them to help flush the innards.
 

Back
Top Bottom