Crawfish Boil

[Coach_Mac]

I know this is mostly a southern thing but I'm boiling up 40 lbs. of crawfish tomorow and was wondering if anyone has a dipping sauce recipe they like. Shrimp dipping sauce recipes work too. I'm excited!
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~jmeaux/images/Louisiana/crawfish.jpg

[razorboy]

Crawdads shouldn't need any sauce if you season the boil right. I'd suggest looking up a recipe for creole mayonnaise if you must have a sauce.

[Fez4PrezN2008]

You could dip them in shit so they would taste better... sorry, not a fan of the mud puppies.

[boosterp]

I too am of the understanding that a good boil mixture makes a sauce irrelevant when doing up some mud bugs.

On BBQd shrimp I will sometimes mix a bit of horseradish in with a quality BBQ sauce in place of cocktail sauce for those who need to dip.

crawfish boil (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Old-Fashioned-Crawfish-Boil-105854)

[NickyL0885]

I want to try Crawfish but the idea of sucking out the meat from the body is not appealing to me.

[boosterp]

I want to try Crawfish but the idea of sucking out the meat from the body is not appealing to me.

I don't suck heads. I once looked at the insides of the head and got all grossed out. I rarely eat crawfish anymore but will sometimes eat the tails fried with some dirty rice.

[Coach_Mac]

I want to try Crawfish but the idea of sucking out the meat from the body is not appealing to me.

I would say most people don't suck the head. You get the meat by peeling back the shell sort of like shrimp.
And yea, the seasoning adds the flavor but a lot of people dip them in coctail sauce which I'm not a huge fan of.

[jessicaduh]

i've never had one, but i really don't do seafood. i enjoyed a good Maine lobster when i was a kid...i grew out of it. insects of the sea.

i think part of it is that it's disgusting to watch people eat. slurp, suck, spit...and just try to avoid getting squirted with that juice shit when they're tearing in...blech.

[KatPw]

Damn I love crawfish.

[Thebazile78]

A good remoulade might be another option for a dipping sauce if cocktail sauce makes you cringe ... there are tons of recipes available on the internet.

Most remoulades are mayonnaise plus flavorings ... so you can probably try mayo and Old Bay (which might be a nice complement to whatever seasonings you're using in your boil) for a start if you don't want to search.

I think I'd do a remoulade over a cocktail sauce myself anyway.

[Dude!]

i like to smoke
my crawdads

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[weekapaugjz]

I've never had them but would like to give them a try. I think I would highly enjoy them.

[bigredd]

You won't need one if you boil the crawfish right.

[sr71blackbird]

How do you actually eat them? I know about lobster and shrimp. I always imagined them being like little lobsters. Do they taste like lobster or shrimp or neither?

[beachbum]

Twist off the tail and then pich the two sides tofether to crack the shell.Then you grab the sides with your thumbs and pull the shell apart.If you crack the shell right you can pinch the end and pull the vein out in one motion.I don't suck the heads either.I think the only people who do are real hard core old timer cajuns.You don't get meat out of the head you suck out the fat/flavor.Gross.



Important note to anyone trying crawfish.Never,NEVER eat one with a straight tail.This means it was dead before it was boiled and you will regret it.

[sspkmark]

[QUOTE=Dude!;2273368]i like to smoke
my crawdads

How do you keep them lit???

[DarkHippie]

God hates shellfish

[razorboy]

God hates shellfish

God is a killjoy.

[DarkHippie]

God is a killjoy.

I feel the same way about him looking down on buttsex

[Coach_Mac]

Crawfish Boil went great today. I mixed up a mayo based dipping sauce. The thing with eating crawfish is the experience. They taste good but you can't say they taste great and you're definately not going to get full on them (that's why you mix in potatoes, sausage, and corn), but it's just a fun thing to eat. You can sit down for 2 or 3 hours drinking beer and peeling crawfish, and hanging out with friends. Great day.

[Ton80]

I'd like to second the "if you boil them right you don't need a sauce" comments. I'm not sure I've ever been to a crawfish boil where people were dipping.

Also...I'd like to correct the eating instructions above.

1. Rip off the head.

2. Suck the head.

3. Put the exposed meat from the tail in your teeth. While pulling the meat gently and sucking slightly, pinch the tail end to push the meat out. If they're boiled right, the meat will release from the shell and slide right out. If you do this step correctly, the meat will come out and the shit vein will stay in the shell as you've pinched it off at the tail end during the process.

4. Discard shells in separate pile.

5. Repeat.


Nothing better than a good crawfish boil and a lot of cold Turbodog.

[beachbum]

I agree 100%.I just figured folks who were less accustomed to eating them would not have the skill set required to pull off the move.I was also avoiding the mention of the "shit vein".

[Coach_Mac]

I don't have enough confidence in my teeth work to pull out the meat without grabbing the vein with it and I just don't want to eat that vein.

[DarkHippie]

I dunno, it all seems like a lot of work for very little meat

[RhinoinMN]

http://ninecooks.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/oldbay.jpg

[Ton80]

I may be in the minority here, but I don't think most seasoned New Orleanians really care all that much about the shit vein. We're usually eating too fast to notice.

As for the "too much work, too little meat" thing. It's understandable, but once you're good at the process you can move through pounds of the stuff without feeling like it's work.

also...

http://shop.zatarains.com/images/7142914512.jpg