re: Best way to cook crawfish????

keep the garlic whole. Other wise it will fall through the holes in the basket and may be hard to find in the big pile.

OH YEH DON'T FORGET

When done pour the leftover water from the pot on them ant hills. They will never come back.

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So you live in Tuscaloosa?

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Yeah man, born and raised in Tuscaloosa all 28 years(about to be 29) of my life. I love it here. It's not a huge town by any means and it's basically a city built around a university, but it's definitely growing and getting nicer. They are starting to get rid of a lot of older run down looking things and putting up nicer buildings and such. What kind of hunting do you do? We duck hunt (my friends and I) and we typically hunt in Greene County and Pickensville areas which are closer to the Mississippi line. But, I don't get out of Bama very much. Never been past Tn but 2 times, and never been past Mississippi. Would love to come to Louisiana one day and visit. Maybe come for a Bama/Lsu game, or do some hunting or at least something.

Lots of good info on this thread. But I do things just a little different. Stick with me cause this will be long, but it'll have EVERYTHING you need to know.

I'd use a 60 qt pot or bigger (any smaller won't hold an entire sack of 'dads). Buy at least 3 jugs of either Zatarains Pro Boil (black 1 gal container) or the EXTRA SPICY (clear plastic, 1 gal sized) Zatarains crawfish boil.

You'll need two LARGE bottles of lemon juice.
One sack of red potatoes (cut them in half)
LOTS of heads of garlic (10 at least, cut in half across all pods)
2 containers of whole button mushrooms (normally I can't even be in the same ROOM with a 'shroom, but boil them w/ crawfish and I can eat them by the handful!!!)
2 packs of hotdogs
1 lb of FRESH green beans, snapped.
1 sack of yellow onions, cut in half
1 package of frozen yellow corn, the large bag of individual sized ears
1 35 lb sack of crawfish
2 bottles of Zatarains liquid crab boil (large size)
1 "boilin' bag". (should be able to find these wherever you buy the pot, if not, use a very small sized laundry bag with a tie-able cord at the top to close it)

Now, setup the pot and burner. Since this is your first boil on a new rig you'll need to figure out the correct amount of water to use. Cut the sack of 'dads open and pour them into your purge tub. Rinse them off (you'll purge later) then transfer them into the basket. Set the basket down into the pot and start filling it with water. When the water covers the 'dads and is about 2 inches above them, turn off the water hose and remove the basket with the 'dads in it (give the basket time to drain before removing from the pot) Mark where the water line is in the pot on the outside of the pot with a magic marker.
This is how much water you'll need when you get to boilin'. Once you boil a bunch in the pot, it will develop a permanent waterline on the inside.

Now, add spices to the pot of water (by now you've dumped out the water you used to measure with and replaced it with fresh clean water). You need to add 1 jug of seasoning (which ever you've chosen), 1 bottle of liquid crab boil, 1 bottle of lemon juice.

Light the burner and cover the pot with the lid. Wait for it to boil (this will take a while so purge the crawfish while you wait. Put them into a tub/cooler/bin, fill it with water, let them soak for 15min, repeat once or twice). Once it's hot, but before it boils, I like to taste my water for heat before I start to boil. Use the biggest spoon or ladle you have in the kitchen, stir up the hot seasoned water with your boilin' paddle, then dip out a ladle of water. It's VERY hot and VERY spicy so prepare yourself!!!! Sip a little... if it literaly makes your nose run and you start coughing, then it's just right. If it's hot, but not REALLY hot, then add more powder boil, but mind the saltyness, if it's salty enough but not hot enough add some more liquid boil until it's right(if you add too much powder mix, it will get too salty). There should be just a hint of lemon flavor, if not, add a little more lemon juice but be careful, too much will cut the spice.

Prep your boilin' bag. Place the potatos, garlic, onion, half the hotdogs, and half the green beans, and half the mushrooms into the sack. Tie the closure string so nothing can float out. Then, place the bag into the pot, tie the end of the sting to the handle on the pot, put the lid on and let it boil for 10 min.

After 10 min, take the lid off, pull out the boilin bag. Put the boilin bag in the bottom of the basket, put crawfish in the basket on top of bag,then lower the basket into the pot. Cover the pot and wait for it to boil again, checking every now and then (time will vary depending on your burner). Once you see the water boiling again (not just bubbling, boiling) turn off the burner, add the other half of the string beans, hotdogs, mushrooms and all the corn and stir. Let everything soak for at least 30 min. Stir a good bit to help cool the water in the pot, the cooler the water gets, the more flavor they soak up. Start testing them every few minutes after the soak, when they are ALMOST done, pull the basket out, let it drip, then pour the crawfish into a GOOD coleman cooler (cheaper ones will warp under the heat) and have a friend sprinkle some powder crawfish boil directly on the crawfish as you pour them into the cooler. Close the lid and let them steam for at least 15min. Let the boilin bag of goodies sit on top of the crawfish in the cooler.

After the steam, pour them out on the table and eat.

The goodies in the boilin' bag will be spicier than the corn, green beans, mushrooms and dogs mixed in with the crawfish. Enjoy.

Good Morning everyone.

Went last night and about ate my weight in crawfish, well at least it totally felt like I did. It was myself, my gf, one of her teacher friends and her husband. We got there at around 6 and I went ahead and put in my order (it was all you can eat), got our food at around 6:15 and my gf and I didn't leave until around 8:30. So, I basically ate crawfish for a good 2 hours. I'm not a big guy either if you can't tell by my avatar pic, around 6'2" and weighing in at around 155-160lbs, but I put 'em away like a champ. I think I ended up putting away right at 3 trays full stacked at a good 5-6 inches up. they have sand pales like you would see kids with at the beach to put your shell and heads in, and I had to get them to empty at lest 4 times I know. I'm already calling all my friends to see who likes crawfish and who doesn't. We've decided were going to do a crawfish boil for my birthday and if they don't eat crawfish then they're not invited. Nah, they'll be invited, but they'll have to bring their own food.

Some of y'all make this way too complicated.


1. Get your pot set up, fill with water, 1 large can (from Sam's) of cayenne pepper and 1.5 cans of salt, turn burner on.
2. Drink beer.
3. Purge/rinse crawfish. Put potatoes in pot.
4. Drink more beer.
5. When boiling, put crawfish and mushrooms in pot. Cover.
6. Drink more beer.
7. When boiling again, see what time it is.
8. Drink beer until about 8 minutes have passed.
9. Turn off pot and put corn in, see what time it is.
10. Drink beer until about 15 minutes have passed.
11. Pull crawfish out, let drain, and eat, while drinking beer.

If doing another sack, repeat.

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MJ - When we have a crawfish boil we always get a picnic ham (bone in) and throw it in the pot after the crawfish are done. Boil for about 15 minutes and serve with rolls for sandwiches. The ones who don't eat crawfish love it and the ones that do eat crawfish ususally end up eating some ham too. The ham will soak up that crawfish boil.

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that sounds good too. i think that would be really good for people like my mom. she thinks i'm crazy for eating them anyways.

I think being a novice at boiling crawfish you should just stick to the premixed boil. I don't know if they sell the Zatarains or Louisiana boil mixes there but that would be a sure way of not screwing up. Look online if they are not sold in your area.

Also when checking out your crawfish before purchase you can use the weight of the sack to determine the size of the crawfish. A sack in the low 30 pound range are some nice crawfish. If you see a 45 pound sack don't get those. Too small. The smaller the crawfish the heavier the sack.

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Or some deep fried tails

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Cajun Popcorn, my favorite way to eat Crawfish.............

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LOL still a lightweight.. I think most good cajuns would put away 5-6 trays. Hell I know my gf who doesnt weigh anything eats a good 10 pounds.

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Well, I'm working my way up. Gotta start somewhere. And I would have no problem being out eaten by a girl.