Crawfish Boil Recipes

[rconn]

An old coon a** I work with told me how he did his and they are awesome. Use whatever ingredients that you would usually use and put it all in a pot and bring to a boil. Take it off set it to the side and then get another pot with just clean water and bring to a boil. Boil your crawfish in the clean water and when they are done put them in the pot with seasoning that has been sitting to the side and cooling down some. longer you leave them in there the more seasoning they suck up. He said because you are putting the hot crawfish in the cooler water it sucks up more of the seasoning and pulls the tail away from the shell making them easier to peel. I thought he was full of it until I had his and did it myself. It's kind of a pain in the butt but it's worth it.

[hopedale]

Crawfish Boil

Use only LIVE CRAWFISH! To store crawfish, pierce several holes in the side of a bag of ice and lay the bag of ice “hole-side” down onto sack of crawfish.


Preparing Crawfish:
The cardinal rule is to purge and thoroughly wash the crawfish before boiling them. Pour the sack of live crawfish in a plastic children's pool, large tub, or a large ice chest. Pour one (1) 26-ounce box salt over the top of the crawfish. Add water to just cover the crawfish. Gently stir with a large paddle to clean the mud off. mix the salt and the water. Stir and then rinse crawfish, until you're satisfied with how clean your bugs are.

DO NOT ADD SALT - Crawfish live in freshwater and the saltwater can kill them. If anyone ask if you purged them with salt, just say yep, we have plenty of salt.

Be careful not to let them purge too long. You do not want them to be dead when you add them to the boil. Throw away all crawfish that have already died (the dead crawfish should float to the top). You do not; I repeat, DO NOT want to add dead crawfish to the pot.
After purging and cleaning, don’t leave the crawfish covered with water, as they need air to stay alive. Keep the crawfish in a cool or shaded area until you’re ready to start cooking.

Into your boil pot add 5 gallons of water (or to max fill line), along with:
• 1 lb. Butter
• 1 cups Lemon Juice
• 1 can frozen orange juice concentrate
• 3 cups Dry Seasoning
• 1 – 3 oz. Boil in a bag
• OPTIONAL: for a little extra punch, add a habanero pepper
***DON’T NOT CUT UP OR EAT!!!!***

Cover. Bring to a boil and allow ingredients to mix for 15 minutes while boiling.
Once ingredients have mixed, add into basket: (Cut down drastically. This will almost fill the entire pot leaving no room for crawfish and shrimp)
• 2 lbs. small Red Potatoes, quartered
• 2 medium Yellow Onions, halved
• 4 ears of Yellow Corn, shucked & broken into halves or thirds
• 5 Large package of White Mushrooms
• 1 lbs. Andouille Sausage, cut into 1 in. pieces
• 2 heads of Garlic, halved & separated

Cover. Allow to boil for 10 minutes (or longer)

Once 10 minutes is up, fill basket with 12 lbs. of LIVE crawfish. Cover. Allow crawfish to cook for 2 minutes before killing heat and allowing crawfish to soak for 25 minutes (10 for the girls).

Add cup of ice towards end.

Optional: With 10 minutes of soaking left, add in 2 lbs. of shrimp (don’t soak for too long or will turn tough)

After soaking, remove basket from pot and pour out onto table covered with newspaper (or in a cooler). Allow food to sit for a couple of minutes in order to properly cool.
Optional: Sprinkle on Ragin Blaze seasoning.

At this time, turn the heat back on and add to your basket vegetables just as before. If the first batch is too spicy, don’t change anything, the next batch will naturally have less of a burn. If the first batch was just right or not hot enough, add more of the first 5 ingredients to your own discretion…

Once boiling, allow to cook for 10 minutes before adding a second batch of crawfish. Cook the same, just as before ending with your shrimp.
Once everybody is finished eating, collect the tails of the rest of the uneaten crawfish and freeze for later use.

Fixed your recipe

[hopedale]

For what its worth, salt in the water bath provides no benefit. A wash with fresh water is all that is needed. We have known that for some time, but until recently had no data to support this assumption. Here is a link to the article for those interested.

http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/commun...g-Crawfish.htm

Read this!

[RonaldB]

Ragin blaze is the seasoning to use. I cooked 300 lbs last year and they were the best I ever cooked. Order soon for this years boil.

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

FTR.....just like Cajun seasoning the boil is primarily the same stuff. The amount of red pepper is usually the main difference.

I'm no expert but I can read labels. LOL.

[Raleigh]

This thread has me seeing red as in boiled crawfish red!!!!

All good advice and I will lend a little on my own.

1) Seasonings, I like to take the bags of crab boil and powder it in a blender and add lemon seasonings, powder garlic, and cayene pepper. My ratio is 3 blended bags of crab boil and one 16 ounce container of the rest. I add my spice to store bought spice to really kick up the flavor with out adding a ton of salt. Some folks put tons of store bought spice that is 90% salt to get really spicey bugs but they are also adding a ton of salt. I like my seasonings because you get lots of heat with no salt.

2) Cool Down, we all agree that you should have the crawfish cool down to soak up more spice right, but what is the best way to do this. When I am boiling I boil alot and spices really add to the cost so I dont add ice to my boil. Ahead of time I fill empty 2 liter bottles of soft drink with water and freeze them. I'll do about 10 of these. Once my crawfish pot starts to steam about 5 minutes I cut off the flame and place 2 or 3 frozen bottles in the pot. This cools down the water but does not dilute the boil.

3) Purging with Salt, I personaly like to purge with salt for the only reason I can say I purged with salt. When you have really big boils you'll get pickey people and they will want to see the purging with salt. Doesnt take much time and I find my guests like knowing the bugs were purge with salt.

That's it, BOIL ON!!!!!!

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

I make my boil 16 times stronger so the ice does not dilute. Then I add more to the cooler. LOL.

[Cornholer]

It's that time of year and my mouth is watering now!