re: What temp do you NEED to get crawfish up to?

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I use a maverick thermaprobe on every crawfish in the pot. Yes it takes a little more prep work but I suffer for my batch.

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Yeah I rarely bring it up to a full rolling boil. Once I see steam and small bubbles/foam forming let it go for a few minutes or so and cut the heat. I let them soak for at least 30 minutes though.

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and furthermore poor cooking.

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LNCHBOX

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Explain why overcooking food is a good idea? Routinely overcooking shrimp and crawfish is like a gulf coast past time. I’m not trying to be cocky, I’m just saying the whole idea of a ‘boil’ is a horrible misnomer.

I fry in 350* oil that doesn’t mean it has to be at 350* to cook. You don’t need the water to be anywhere close to 212* to cook the seafood.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with just heating the water to 165* and cooking for longer and never cutting the heat. For one, it would save you a lot of time getting the water up to temp.

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Once you get the pot to a roiling boil, a minute or two at most is all you need before shutting off to begin soak.

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Depends on size and color.

At the beginning of the season when they are light and small, I usually do 2 minute rolling boil/25 minute soak. Towards the end of the season when most crawfish are dark and big, I’ll let it roll for about five minutes and do about a 20 minute soak.

For a few years now there’s been a small but growing movement here to call attention to the many wrong, or at least unnecessary, things done in many crawfish boil processes, usually out of nothing but pure routine or tradition. We’ve done a good job of destroying the salt bath, “purging” myth. Now working on the rolling boil fallacy. Some have open minds and will comprehend and adapt and their efforts and end result will be better for it.

They are ok when they float

Rolling boil, dump crawfish in, once they float and you see some foam or bubbles building cut it off. I Do not get back to a boil. Never had them undercooked. I do soak for approx 20-30 min as well

Once the crawfish float to the top they are cooked. No need to get it to a rolling boil.

Also if you cool the pot down to ~150-160 you’ll never have to fear overcooking and can soak them
For an hour if you want.