Origins of Boiled Crawfish?

Like every other cajun story it all starts with someone named Thibodeaux or Boudreaux.

Not mine but here's one version:

"According to Thibodeaux Comeaux, a rice farmer in Ville Platte, this story is true.

"Few people actually know this, but Crawfish have only been around since 1775. See, it all started when the French living in Acadie, Nova Scotia were expelled from their land by the British. By land and sea they traveled across North America to arrive in South Louisiana. They were then welcomed by the French who already lived there. The Spanish helped out by providing land grants to these "Acadians." Now you may be asking yourself what Crawfish have to do with this story. Actually, they have everything to do with it.

You see, people up in Nova Scotia really liked lobster. So it was only natural that when the Acadians made their move to South Louisiana, they brought their Lobster with them. The problem was that the lobsters lost their appetite along the way and shrunk up quite a bit. Since this smaller lobster didn't really look like a lobster any more, the Acadians, now known as Cajuns, called this small crustacean a Crawfish."

I was always told that crawfish didnt become really popular until around the great depression. The Fed sent some people down trying to find a source of nutrition for the poor people in rural Louisiana. Thats when they found that the crawfish down here was abundant and full of protein. I would definitly say it originated more in the Bayou towns and the rice towns of acadiana. Its always been more of a rural thing until more recently.

quote:

---

maybe france? do they have crawfish over there?

---

They have them but they don't consume them like us. They consider them bait...at least that is what my ex-mother-in-law, who is from Bordeaux, told me.

quote:

---

Catman88

---

What he said. It started in Acadiana. Since they are actually "farmed" (meaning you seed the fields and then after they grow you harvest them) it is very much so a rural thing as it takes a good bit to land to do.

quote:

---

They have them but they don't consume them like us. They consider them bait...at least that is what my ex-mother-in-law, who is from Bordeaux, told me.

---

that's what my godmother in Amsterdam told me as well. I just figured if it existed the French tried to eat it at some point.

Lobster was once the poor mans food. Now it's weeks pay at some places. Go figure

quote:

---

It started in Acadiana. Since they are actually "farmed" (meaning you seed the fields and then after they grow you harvest them)

---

It actually started with wild crawfish in the basin and swamps of Louisiana during the late 1800s. Crawfish ponds didn't really happen until the 60s. Before that, it was only wild crawfish.

They do have different species of crawfish all over the world, though.

quote:

---

anyone know what region boiled crawfish comes from

---

I always wondered about the first person to decide those ugly friggin bugs would be good to eat. That and the first person to eat a raw oyster.

As much as I love crawfish, the first person to ever cook such a crazy looking think must have been really hungy.