Mudbug boil tips, tricks, pointers, and secrets

[Clay C]

I've prolly eaten a ton of bugs in my day....never quite understood the " sucking the heads" thing......at least not for a man anyway.

My wife uses gloves cause she don't like digging crap out of her nails.

Lol fair point. Maybe i should re-examine my crawfish eating.

[chehunt]

On that steaming method, where can one find the bottom piece that goes in the basket to keep the bugs off of the bottom? Guess could improvise with something.

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

Sucking the hot and spicy juice out of the head is the best part. It takes a real man to do that when I boil. [emoji38]

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[mjhaverkamp]

On that steaming method, where can one find the bottom piece that goes in the basket to keep the bugs off of the bottom? Guess could improvise with something.

I put four 2 inch long bolts through the bottom of basket, it keeps it two inches off the bottom of the pot.

[Birddog66]

1) Purge them right before you cook.(purge is a fancy word for cleaning, truly purging crawfish takes 12-24 hrs) I rinse, throw some regular salt on them and cover with water for a few minutes and rinse again. Clorinated water will kill crawfish, that's why I do this process right before cooking.

2) Boil spices - I stick with the classics - stick of butter, 3-4 lemons, onion and garlic and whatever spices you want to use. My favorite stuff is swamp dust, straight from La., you can order on amazon now in 4 lb bags. I use to have to ship from La. in a 50 lb bag. Be careful with the local stuff from HEB and others, TOO MUCH SALT!! By the time you get the heat you want, your way too salty. Don't be afraid to throw some straight cayenne pepper in there if you want to bring the heat.

3) Boiling I throw potatoes first for 4-5ish minutes, then corn, sausage, etc for another 3-4 minutes, depends on how good your boiling, then the mudbugs for about 5-7 minutes or so. Sometimes you have to wait a little bit for the water to start boiling again, be sure to factor that in. I know by the look when their done See pic below. (dark red and start moving towards the top) Than I cut the heat and let everything sit for 20 minutes or as close to it as possible. This is the most important part about getting the heat into the bugs tails and head.

Dump and get your fire going again for the next batch, you need to re-season your boil every go around. These pics are from Saturday afternoon.

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

No need for salt when cleaning them. The whole "purge" with salt myth was debunked years ago.

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[buzzbait]

butter and oranges or orange juice.

[Birddog66]

No need for salt when cleaning them. The whole "purge" with salt myth was debunked years ago.

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This is true, it does nothing as far as actually purging, but it helps clean them. If I've got some clean bugs I'll usually leave it out. Actually, my bugs from Saturday were very clean(Hutto Super HEB), I didn't use salt.

[Comanchehunter]

Soak whole pineapples into the hot water after everything is cooked. Fantastic.

Same thing with a dozen tamales tied up in pantyhose.



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[eastxhunter]

Sucking the hot and spicy juice out of the head is the best part. It takes a real man to do that when I boil. [emoji38]

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Only try hards suck the heads. You want the juices dip you out some of the boil and take a swig.

[Burntorange Bowhunter]

Dumb.

[Seay]

Pounds per person when planning?

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[Derrik]

Soak whole pineapples into the hot water after everything is cooked. Fantastic.

Same thing with a dozen tamales tied up in pantyhose.



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Pineapples are amazing in the boil

[Muskles]

Pounds per person when planning?

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2-3, if you have sausage, shrimp, and plenty veggies. Sometimes you have people that can eat 5-6 by themselves, but they're not filling up on taters and stuff. This has been my experience anyway.

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[McClain]

Note that weight loss will occur during cooking. So, 40 pounds of live crawfish will not yield 40 pounds of cooked product. Depending on cooking method, among other factors, weight loss can be up to 20% or greater.