Mudbug boil tips, tricks, pointers, and secrets

[Seay]

All of you self proclaimed boil pros post up from ordering those bags of delicious critters to eating the last of them.

Thinking about planning a boil for about 10 plus kids and need advice. TIA

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[K. Lane]

Tips...…...you'll get a million I am sure but

my 3 are:

1. add a bit of cooking oil to the water while boiling. I believe it helps keep the tail meat and "tail shell" from sticking together when peeling.


2. Boil for 5-7 minutes (my preference) then shut off the heat and dump a 10 bag of ice
(assuming you are talking about 30-35 pound bags of bugs) into the water for the soak for 50- 10 minutes. The ice cools them down a degree or 3 instantly and that helps the spices absorb into the meat and into the head

3. Go easy on the Chachere's or whatever spice you use to sprinkle on the bugs after being dumped into the ice chest. No need for the shells to be super spicy and that is all that does, you aint eating them, use the ice to cool them a bit and the boiling spice get into the meat where it is supposed to be




oh yeah, whatever is not eaten, sit and have a few beers while peeling what is left, vacuum seal them and use them at a later date to make some etoufee

[dc1986]

Steamed some last week. I will do it that way from now on.

[ame="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SRSjAf9mZwk"]How To Steam Crawfish ~ Recipe - YouTube[/ame]

[JES]

Mudbug boil tips, tricks, pointers, and secrets

Get them clean before you cook them. There are many different things aha to boil them, but the key is to start with clean crawfish. If you are only cooking one or two sacks then just dump each sack into an ice chest and flush them 8-10 times to get as much mud, grass, snails, bait fish, whatever may be in that sack with them out.

My preference is to boil them in clean water and then dump them into seasoned water in an ice chest and let them sit for 15 minutes or so. Add a pound of butter to the seasoned water, will help them peel easier. I don’t do any seasoning on top, that just burns your lips.

Here is a batch from Saturday.

[Seay]

Tips...…...you'll get a million I am sure but

my 3 are:

1. add a bit of cooking oil to the water while boiling. I believe it helps keep the tail meat and "tail shell" from sticking together when peeling.


2. Boil for 5-7 minutes (my preference) then shut off the heat and dump a 10 bag of ice
(assuming you are talking about 30-35 pound bags of bugs) into the water for the soak for 50- 10 minutes. The ice cools them down a degree or 3 instantly and that helps the spices absorb into the meat and into the head

3. Go easy on the Chachere's or whatever spice you use to sprinkle on the bugs after being dumped into the ice chest. No need for the shells to be super spicy and that is all that does, you aint eating them, use the ice to cool them a bit and the boiling spice get into the meat where it is supposed to be




oh yeah, whatever is not eaten, sit and have a few beers while peeling what is left, vacuum seal them and use them at a later date to make some etoufee

Get them clean before you cook them. There are many different things aha to boil them, but the key is to start with clean crawfish. If you are only cooking one or two sacks then just dump each sack into an ice chest and flush them 8-10 times to get as much mud, grass, snails, bait fish, whatever may be in that sack with them out.

My preference is to boil them in clean water and then dump them into seasoned water in an ice chest and let them sit for 15 minutes or so. Add a pound of butter to the seasoned water, will help them peel easier. I don’t do any seasoning on top, that just burns your lips.

Here is a batch from Saturday.

Never thought to not season them after the boil. Makes sense to avoid the fire lips! Maybe I'll do half and half. I tend to enjoy the lips burning followed by an ice cold beer.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[Seay]

Steamed some last week. I will do it that way from now on.

How To Steam Crawfish ~ Recipe - YouTube

Just watched that video I may give this a shot next time. Gonna have to buy the bigger pot though.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[mjhaverkamp]

Just watched that video I may give this a shot next time. Gonna have to buy the bigger pot though.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Best I ever had were steamed, it is how we do it now, the other method is to do a clean water boil and then soak just like the steamed version, both are great.

[rtp]

Get them clean before you cook them. There are many different things aha to boil them, but the key is to start with clean crawfish. If you are only cooking one or two sacks then just dump each sack into an ice chest and flush them 8-10 times to get as much mud, grass, snails, bait fish, whatever may be in that sack with them out.

My preference is to boil them in clean water and then dump them into seasoned water in an ice chest and let them sit for 15 minutes or so. Add a pound of butter to the seasoned water, will help them peel easier. I don’t do any seasoning on top, that just burns your lips.

Here is a batch from Saturday.

Listen to this man......this is the Gospel on cooking outstanding crawfish.

[Seay]

Best I ever had were steamed, it is how we do it now, the other method is to do a clean water boil and then soak just like the steamed version, both are great.

Listen to this man......this is the Gospel on cooking outstanding crawfish.

Several saying boil in CLEAN soak in SEASONED. I think there may be something to this.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[bloodtrail18]

Please don't add butter or oil to crawfish. The way to make them easy to get out of the shell is to not over cook them. Here's my recipe.

1. Start purging the crawfish- I dump them in an ice chest and stick a garden hose down through the crawfish and let it run so it overflows the chest. Letting the chest overflow will let any grass etc flow out and over the top. I stir the crawfish around in the chest while I'm running the water to get any debris that may be stuck under them. When the water is clear and debris gone, you're good. No salt in the water.

2. Fill your (80-100qt)pot half way with water and add one jug of dry seasoning of your choice ( I stay away from Zatarains as it tends to be extra salty), a dozenish halved lemons and squeeze the juice into the pot before throwing in the rind, 4-6 large white onions cut in half, from here you can get creative within reason by adding celery, Jalapenos, hot sauce, etc., but it is not entirely necessary. Add potatoes if you want at this point. Turn on your burner-Full blast and put the lid on the pot.

3. When the water comes to a rolling boil add your crawfish. Put the lid back on. When you add the crawfish the water will not be at a rolling boil anymore due to the crawfish cooling the water a bit.

4. Watch your boil close and let it come back to a rolling boil. As soon as the water returns to boiling shut it OFF! You don't need to boil it any more than that.

5. When I shut the burner off I grab the hose and spray the OUTSIDE of the pot to cool it down some and begin soaking the crawfish for 20-30 mins depending on how spicy you want them. Pull a couple crawfish out at the 20 min mark and start tasting every few minutes until you get your desired spice.

6. Now that you started to soak you can add corn and mushrooms. They will cook perfect in the time it takes to soak crawfish.

7. Whats that? I forgot the sausage? A good boil always has boiled sausage! I didn't forget. Back to my opening line about leaving out the butter and grease. Adding the sausage while your crawfish are in the pot will make them greasy also. When the crawfish taste right I pull them and all the vegetables out and put them in an ice chest to keep them hot. Once the crawfish are out of the pot you can add your sausage. You can probably still cook the sausage in the still hot water without the burner on but it doesn't hurt to turn the burner on to help it cook faster. Cook your sausage roughly 10 mins and pull it out.

8. Enjoy.

This recipe if for one 30ish pound sack of crawfish. For each additional sack increase the seasoning by 50% for each additional sack.

[Traildust]

Just go to Whataburger....easier, cheaper and taste better!

[Seay]

Just go to Whataburger....easier, cheaper and taste better!

Whataburger is for the end of the drinking night if you have a DD (friend's wife is pregnant WIN!!)

Mudbugs are for eating WHILE you're drinking.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[salth2o]

I've been doing the clean boil and soak for a few years now. I like it much better.

Definitely rinse the crawfish in a cooler until the water runs clear. No need to dump a bunch of salt in there to "purge" them. It really doesn't work like that and just kills the crawfish.

I get the water boiling and cook my potatoes for about 10 minutes, throw the corn in and boil for another 7-10 minutes. Dump those into my slurry as described in the link below and I add some whole mushrooms (these really take on the seasoning and are spicy).

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=454622&highlight=mustard+crawfish

[Smokeater]

Just go to Whataburger....easier, cheaper and taste better!

Ha! I told by brother in law one time to leave me about a dozen of em out live. Confused, he asked how you gonna eat em? I just told him Ize gone put em on a hook and catch something worth eating that wasn't so much work! Beer was good tho...

[bboswell]

Many great points made here but clean crawfish needs to be emphasized!

This is by far the fastest and easiest way to get truly clean crawfish



I used coolers and kiddy pools etc and none of that compares.