re: Step by Step Boiled Crawfish Recipe Video

I like using the Banjo over the blaster burner

One tip for you at the end. I wait till the crawfish sink before I pull the basket. If you pull them while they are still floating is a mistake.

Appreciate it

Good video. I would have included the size of your pot (is it 80 or 100 qt?) and how much seasoning you use.

I pretty much do the same as you, but I don't use the frozen water bottles / milk jugs as I'm not sure how safe it is to expose those plastics to near boiling water. I'm always afraid stuff from the plastic will leech into the water.

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Spraying the pot with a hose works just as well

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No, it does not. The surface area of the pot is not enough to cool down the entire pot with a simple hose spray. The only way to get rapid cooling is by a heat exchanger, or using ice, water bottles, etc... However, that being said, i don't find cooling down the crawfish as fast as possible to be a necessity for good crawfish. I'll add maybe half a small bag of ice, but i doubt it does anything. Also depends on the size of your pot as well. I've got a 100 qt pot, and do a sack at a time, and it usually takes around 20-30 minutes for the soak/cool down before they start sinking again and taste ready to remove from the pot.

I don’t do the hose spray but it does have an effect, especially if using something like the Boil Boss. They did a comparison video of Boil Boss vs ice.

I just don’t like creating a swamp in my back yard so I don’t do it.

for those who do not know how to boil crawfish

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It will bring down the temp of the pot, but it does not work as well as adding ice, in my experience.

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we are talking 2 different objectives here. kinda like pre cooling your immersion chiller water or now.

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My experiences are different. I used to put the kettle in an ice bath and also add the immersion chiller. I stopped doing the ice bath and the cool down temps were relatively the same. Now that's with stainless 10 gallon pot.

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You say the it was relatively the same. I bet it did help a bit. but for it to work noticeably work better you would need to be able to keep the ice bath at 32 degrees for the duration. which you know would be a ton of ice.

My situation was chilling 16 gallons in a keggle(heated from a burner) from 212 to 80-90 would take roughly 45 mins.(in the summer with 75ish degree ground water). Where cooling that 16 gallons down in about 20+ mins.

There a many variables here but the main ones i see are the shear volume of steel different in the keggle and the SS pots, the addition head of the burner, and the extreme temps of the burner and pot, where the electric system, everything is 212 except for the small amount of metal in the heating element that is hotter.

I like to add oranges when I put the lemons in. Still gets a great citrus flavor. I also put in a stick of butter and jar of minced garlic when I cut off the burner.