re: Best way to cook crawfish????

quote:

---

I would go with at least a 60 qt rig.

---

yeah, i'm thinking that to be on the safe side that would be the best. i'll have to do some shopping around town to find one that big. might be able to find one at the sam's club (or mega wal-mart as i call it).

If you can't find this at Walmart, you can for sure get it someplace online like Cabela's.

quote:

---

do any of you cook them when you tailgate

---

Well for baseball games yes.. Football they are hard to get as Crawfish season starts in Feb and ends arounf May. Sometimes in Dec you can get some if its a good year though.

Crawfish boiling is NOT a meal.. its an EVENT. You invite the family.. Drink beer and have a good time outdoors. You can rarely ever buy live crawfish NOT in a full sack. Which is generally 25-40 lbs depending on the size of the crawfish. So when you boil crawfish its something to plan around.

I saw crawfish pots at Walmart the other day.. 60 and 80 qt variety and burners.. Of course thats here.. BAMA should sell them too.

One thing you may not know is that before you boil the crawfish, throw out the dead ones. My grandmother always told me to do this. I'm not a big crawfish fan so I don't know the exact reason behind this. Do any of you guys do this too? I thought everybody does this.

Doesnt really matter.. yea if you see a dead one its good to throw out you dont want to eat them since they are nasty but you can tell if they died before they were boiled by looking at the tail.. if the tail is curled its good if its straight it died prior.

Hey MJ, do you have a FREDS over there. If you do then go check them out. They have the complete setup that is even cheaper than at Wal Mart. I would give anything to find live crawfish here. I'm in the middle of Al. Prople here probably never heard of crawfish. I can't wait until March 25th. The church that I go to here in Alex City, is going to have a gumbo cooking contest. This ought to be a hoot. I was asked politely not to enter because I would have the unfair advantage as I've only been living here for a year. If I was allowed to enter, I planned to take a flight from Montgomery to BR and go to Tony's seafood to buy all the fresh ingredients that I need. I went to high school with Mr. Tony's eldest son. Bill would have really fixed me up. Oh well, I can't wait to see what these guys and how these guys make gumbo. This should be interesting. Now, go check out FREDS.

never cook the dead ones. I guess you could but I wouldn't. All rotten and all.

Do not purge with salt water. NO SALT. Just rinse them off with hose water. DO NOT let them sit in water. Make sure the water drains. Keep the crawfish cool. You can leave them in a sack until ready to rinse off in an icechest, but keep them in the shade.

Spices vary and so do brand names. Grab a tub of any you can find that is made for sack size. I like what the local market makes themself. If not I like Louisiana brand. Others are Rex and Zaterans for example. Usually this is all you need for seasoning. At least for a novice. I like to add additional red pepper.
Now for the vegies. I like Onion kept whole and garlic kept whole along with lemons. Red Potatos and corn also. This is basic. Of course you can throw anything into the pot like celery, colliflower, caned beans, etc. Over time you will learn tricks about cook times for corn and potatos, and learn that they soak up a lot more seasoning. For now throw all into the pot

Boil the water with the seasoning. When it comes to a boil drop in the basket of crawfish and veggies. Also if you like you can throw in saussage, hot dogs, turkey breast, etc..

When it comes to a boil give it 5 minutes and turn off heat. Key now is to cool the pot. Ice containers, bag of ice, or simply hosing the outside of the pot with the water hose. This stopps the cooking. Now it is time to SOAK. I like 45 min. 30min at the least. This is when it will get all its good flavors.

I like to scoop out some water from the pot and do a small pot on the side for corn and potatos due to cooking times and the way the corn likes to soak up seasoning. Also Saussage may make a pot of crawfish greasy. This is just something I do if I can. If not I put it all in the same pot.

MJ, someone may have already said this, but be sure and throw in some mushrooms. Don't let them cook but a minute and soak with the crawfish, they are great.. If all else fails and you need some advice on crawfish, call Nick, he may remember!

and whole heads of garlic too.. always a good test to see if your girlfriend still likes you .. lol