Second batch of a crawfish boil

Pretty much add 1/3rd to half of whatever was in the 1st boil for each additional boil. More than 3 sacks, change out and start fresh.

How do you "shock" the crawfish for the soak? Ice directly in the pot, frozen corn, water jugs?

I try to freeze one gallon water jugs if I've got space in the freezer/remember ahead of time.

If you add ice directly to the pot, I'd add another half batch of dry seasoning, otherwise a little liquid boil (to taste) should be fine.

Some crawfish "experts" say dump for a third batch, but at my house we are usually "lubricated" enough by the time a third batch that no one seems to care.

Crawfish boiling is over thought.


If you have too little or too much seasoning, you just adjust your soak time.

Start tasting after 10-15 minutes. If you aren't anywhere close, you can always add seasoning then and try them again in 10 minutes.

I've done it several times and it's the best way IMO.


I do put some seasoning in the boil pot though, just because it feels weird boiling in clear water, but it's only enough to color the water.

The best thing about it is speed


Your boiling pot stays at a high temp so it doesn't take long to get it back boiling when you need too


The soak takes a little less time because the soaking pots temp is already lower. I like to keep that pot pretty warm, but no where near boiling.

I used to manage a restaurant where we boiled a lot of crawfish. We would do a water change after the 3rd boil. Each boil was 2.5 sacks. If you only have 3 sacks to boil I wouldn't even think about dumping the pot and changing the water. Of course, we also washed the crawfish before dropping them.

3rd batch, there's already enough spice in pot, i'll just add a couple tubs of salt.

quote:

---

Anyone ever try with two pots. One with just clean water to cook them. Second pot is seasoned and doesn't even need to boil. Cook them in clean water then transfer to seasoning pot. Dump the clean water for second batch. The seasoned pot just add seasoning and water as needed it shouldn't get dirty or diluted if you keep the correct ratio.

I've heard of people doing it but never watched.

---

This is the best way to do it just obviously requires a second set of equipment. Second, seasoned, pot stays warm but not boiling so that they cooking process stops as soon as the bugs hit it. Biggest mistake I see is overcooked shrivled up crawfish, so you need a way to cool them after but ice dilutes, frozen bottles are a hassle, and spraying the outside of the pot makes a mess. No hard boiling also means no scorching of seasoning. I wouldn't even dump the clean batch, just fire it back up.

I used to work big boils with a guy who had a chain hoist rig with two 500 gal pots side by side. This is the way he would do it and everyone raved about them.

quote:

---

How well do you think that would work if the soaking pot wasn't heated at all?
Would it cool the crawfish down too much?

---

I don't know if it would mess anything up, but by the time it's time to serve the crawfish, they will probably be lukewarm which some people may not like


I keep the temp around 150-160