re: Now the crawfish bisque thread

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If you hit reply you can see the pictures.

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I see where you said you stuff the head by hand, and for years I did the same until I spoke to an old Cajun lady who told me to simply make my stuffing just a tad wetter, put it in a piping bag and cut the end of the tube just a bit larger and do it that way.

I can easily stuff 7-8 heads a minute that way without really rushing. The only thing that slows me down is refilling the bag to stuff more.

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Agreed. I thought this was about crawfish bisque. The pictures are grilled oysters and a dead pig which I could have lived without seeing.

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The thread started with "How do I judge oysters" then he changed it to "how do I post pics" and now he's changed it to "Now the crawfish bisque thread".

Hopefully it makes more sense now.

Bisque pics

These were just quick pics I was sending friends and family last time. So not a lot of details. But it is definitely tasty
Several KEYS to making this…
1. MUST use crawfish from a boil. You can use store bought to go in the gravy, but the heads will not even be worth a crap using anything but crawfish boil tails.
2. MUST save a garbage bag of the stuff you would normally throw away in order to reboil it for stock. Again, no way to achieve the flavor any other way.
3. I do something very unusual, and that is to use the zatarains flour type fish fry for my roux. (Don’t knock it until you try it. It’s amazing)
I fry my stuffed heads to get the stuff going in the bottom of the pan. Some ppl oven cook them.
I’ve done it both ways. Main thing is to make way more roux than you think you need in my opinion. It’s a mega effort to make this, but nobody ever turns down an invite to come eat it. They know.

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And IDK maybe take the whiskers/eyes/front part of head off the heads.

Never seen that in any bisque I ate and cant say I would like it if I did.

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You beat me to this. NO way I'm having those heads in that shape in my bisque. I'm not so fussed about the eyes, but hell, remove the feelers so they don't break off in the pot and become an issue. That would be like eating something and wind up with a mouthful of hair.

I always break off the front part of the shell to remove the eyes, feelers and that miserable point that can stick the hell out of you.


No point in doing all that work to make a great dish only to half-arse it on the heads.

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It looks good except for the heads with the eyes, antenna and the points.

I'm curious as to the purpose of leaving those parts on the heads.

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I thought leaving the heads in tact was pretty standard for bisques? Why spend the time removing all those things?

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First time I've ever seen this in a bisque. It's either boulettes or just the body section minus the head and tail stuffed.

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You know what, you are right. I mis-remembered.

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I thought leaving the heads in tact was pretty standard for bisques? Why spend the time removing all those things?

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How's this for a couple reasons.

The long feelers can easily break off during the cooking process and stirring the pot and that would be like eating hair in a dish.

Second, getting the stuffing out of the heads could get a bit prickly fooling with a head with that sharp point at the front by the eyes.

I always break the point, eyes and feelers off by hand when I clean the heads for stuffing. If the shells are from late in the season and hard a pair of wire cutters would do great and save your hands.