Open Crawfish Boil Questions

quote:

---

No trolling. No unnecessary hostility or rudeness -

---

We have an 80 quart pot and I’ll leave the top two row of holes visible in the metal strainer before I put the crawfish in

That cooks/soaks one sack of crawfish perfectly

quote:

---

I typically fill the pot ‘til above 5th hole with water, that allows ample room for seasoning, veggies, & crawfish…

---

It's important to note what size pot you're doing this in. The 5th hole on a 60qt pot is different than the 5th hole on a 120qt pot. I fill to the middle of the 5th hole on a 100qt pot for a typical 35lb sack of crawfish.

I also boil my sides first using 3/4 of my seasonings then pull the bag after a 10 minute soak and drop it in a small ice chest with the lid cracked. Then I add the rest of my seasoning to do the crawfish.

Why not just drop a basket of crawfish into a pot of not boiling unseasoned water. Observe the water level, remove the crawfish and remember the desired level?

Water level just above the food line. Minimize the water, minimize the boil time. I toss in longer cooking stuff like taters right away, add bugs and tender veggies when it gets boiling, return to boil, then cut fire after a minute or two. No ice or cool off needed. They soak uncovered until they sink. I might boil a little longer with bigger or late season crawfish.

For seasoning, do whatever you like. I’m a big believer in targeting a flavor for the water instead of over focusing on the weight of the food, but it ends up being very close either way.