re: Need Crawfish boiling advice

Don't Adding ice just dilutes the water, so you can do the ice bottles, but you need a large pot, or just spray the outside of the pot.

Wash and clean your crawfish 2-3 times at a minimum. Get you some cheap plastic bins that hold water, because the crawfish need to release all the mud on them and in them. You are not getting them right out of the water, so it also brings them back up or "alive".

I don't think putting salt in and killing them does anything but make then expell what is inside of them. Doesn't help with seasoning, etc.

When boiling, you need extra boxes of salt and seasoning depending on how you like it. The first batch is for the women and the pain in the arse free loaders. So it won't be the best, but easy on the salt so the old ladies dont bitch. After that, you reboil using same water and add additional seasoning. You can season all you want, but the salt is what will screw it up. So just be careful on the salt.

Don't steam unless you are doing tons, those guys don't wash their crawfish and the people they boil for wouldn't know better. Seasoning on the outside is what it is. It makes the seasoning get everywhere and the outside it gritty, so it looks like they are really not clean and taste like mud. You have to mix the crawfish for it to get on all of them; think about it.

Do your vegetables in a langerie bag or old panty hose. Don't put all kind of junk in the water, sausage (never smoked), wieners, crazy vegetables, etc. Why pay $80 a sack and all the set up to cook vegetables. Corn, potatoes,onions and mushroom at the most. The rest is just crap in the pot. Lemons work for seafood, but realize how much lemon you have to put in to adjust a large pot of water?

Decide on your seasoning and put it for the first boil after determining how much you will boil per batch. Never boil a large batch first. The real fun is cooking, let the freeloaders leave. Don't even aswer any comments or suggestions just nod your head.

Bring your water to a boil, put in the crawfish, bring it to a boil again. Let it boil 5-7 minutes and then cut them off. Then let them soak for 15-20 minutes. Cool off the outside of the pot. Don't put butter and other crap in the water. As someone said before, ease of peel is not about grease it it about over or under boiling. If they are hard to peel and rubbery/under. Really hard to peel and mushy/over. Be aware, they continue to cook if you keep them together, so the longer you wait, to take them out, the more chance of an overboil. Also, spread them out on the table. If your table isn't big enough for all the crawfish; boil less. Don't let them sit in a container, that is the icechest method.

Just cool the pot and then taste them after 15. If you want more, add a little more seasoning and let them go 5 more, spraying the outside of the pot.

Don't try to fix it. Just let them bitch. If you do what I listed here, you should be close. Trying to fix it will make it worse. Also, being hot is overrated, let your crawfish cool some, so they soak more. The idiot who wants them hot out of the pot has no idea about how they cook.

If you clean your crawfish well before you boil, you shouldn't have to change it after two. It is boilng water, unless you are scooping the bottom of the pot, anything heavy falls, why would your water get that dirty if you cleaned them before?

Do what you want with the last batch and season the heck out of it, try different things, etc. You are better boiling small batches and making people wait then boiling a large amount at one time. Do a sack and a 1/2 and you will be fine. They will clean the old ones off the table and your mess ups are not so noticeable.

There is a lot of craziness on this thread, the only way you get better at something is by doing it alot. So don't worry if you mess up. Small batches. Small batches. No ice, no steam, no stupid crap in the pot. Go buy some proboil, seasoning bags, and liquid. With about four boxes of salt. Put a little extra salt in the second thru the last batches, but the amount depends on the size of your pot, seasoning is on the size of your pot, amount of crawfish is based on size of your pot. Don't put too much crawfish than you need at one time. If you are adding water add seasoning. Set you a level on your pot and mark the inside, then keep your water at that level. Use that to judge how much seasoning you add per batch.

quote:

---

After the fisrt batch I would cut my seasoning in half for the next batch and continue this for every remaining batch.

---

This works for me, except for the last batch, that one is for the cook. It gets a full dose of seasoning.