This is one of my specialties. I live in Arkansas and work about 6 months out of the year in Baton Rouge LA, and have a lot of co workers from Mississippi and Louisiana and we do big crawfish boils a lot, I have cooked around 200 lbs just this year so far. I don't know how big of a pot you have but I usually use between a 100 or 120 quart pot to boil a whole 35 lb. sack at a time. I use 4.5 lbs bag of Louisiana powder and 6-8 oz. of liquid boil, 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup veg oil, about half a jar of minced garlic and about 3 or 4 sliced lemons. I fill my pot about half full of water add all ingredients except crawfish and bring to a rolling boil for about 15 minutes and then shut it off and let it sit for about 20 minutes. This gives all of the seasoning time to mingle and let the water absorb all of the salts and seasonings. Also stir it with a small paddle a few times during and after the boiling process.
It makes a big difference when you do this for the first batch. While I am getting my water ready I start prepping my other veggies to put in it. You can add what you like but here are things I put in it. Baby red potatoes (poke a fork in the side to help it cook faster and take in seasoning), smokes sausage ( cut into 2-3in. pieces ), hot dogs for the kids, corn on the cob, mushrooms (the corn and mushrooms with be very spicey and soak up a lot of the heat). Also have put broccoli florets and onion quartered up that is really good for those who like it.
After you let the seasonings mingle fire up your burner and get it to a rolling boil and add all the extras in before the crawfish and boil for 5 minutes then add your crawfish ( this would also be the time to add the broccoli because it cooks fast and gets soggy). Once you have added the mud bugs bring to a rapid boil and boil for 4 minutes then shut off your fire keep the lid on and let it soak for 15 to 25 minutes Note: your crawfish will still be cooking during the soak time and that is why the boil time is so short.
Be sure you start your timer after the crawfish start boiling real good and at 4 min. it should be floating pretty high in the pot, then you soak them until they sink ( that is when they have absorbed all of the juice.) The longer the soak the hotter (spicier) they get. If you want them to be real juicy you can boil them for 5 min. instead of 4 min. and add a bag of ice to the pot as soon as you shut it off and that will make them stop cooking and suck the juice in faster and reduce the soak time.
This is what I know about boiling crawfish Cajun style and there is a hundred ways to do it but this works well for me and my 40 man crew. I will start another post next on what to do with leftovers!
Hope this may help.
---------- Post added June 17th, 2014 at 10:27 PM ----------
When I have a lot of left overs from a boil I peel the remaining tails and keep them chilled. My favorite thing to do with them is, make crawfish etouffee (Ay-two-Fay).
Ingredients
1lbs peeled crawfish tails
one tsp black pepper
one table spoon of creole seasoning (I like Tony Chachere)
one large onion chopped
one large bell pepper chopped
Two sticks of butter
three stalks of green onion chopped
two tablespoons of minced garlic
about 1/2 cup of flour give or take
one can cream of mushroom soup
In a stock pot melt your butter and add onion and bell pepper and bring to a simmer stirring frequently. When the bell pepper starts to get a little softer add your minced garlic and green onion and continue to simmer until the onion and bell pepper starts to brown and then start slowly adding flour, stirring with a wisk until it starts to thicken and soaks up all of the butter. keep adding flour until it gets to thick to stir easy and then add about 3 cups of water to thin it back down.
Next add your cream of mushroom soup and stir well if it is to thick slowly add water until it has a desired consistency, it should be about like a gravy, next add your crawfish tails and about a teaspoon of black pepper, a tablespoon of creole seasoning and simmer for 10 minutes. Now you are done, Serve over rice!
Note: You are making a blonde roux with the flour so you are not trying to really brown it to much.