Crayfish season should be coming up, and I do like a crawdad boil. But I won’t be having one. Turns out roomie can’t get past that they look like big bugs. She also doesn’t care for the texture. (She doesn’t like the texture of lobster, either. She likes crab, though.)
Alas! Crawdads, a pot of boiling water, cobbettes of corn, red potatoes, ‘crab boil’ seasoning, and cornbread and cheap beer on the side. Maybe I can do two pots: a crawdad boil for me, and a shrimp boil for her.
I have wanted to try them, but so far have not had an opportunity. One company I worked for had a big gathering for the marketing department every year with a huge crawdad boil, but since I was in development I never got invited.
I lived in Mississippi for a year, and crawfish boils are the one thing I miss the most. I honestly think I could stand at a table covered in crawfish, corn and potatoes for an entire day eating and eating and eating.
I like to mix the seafood in my seafood boil: jumbo shrimp, or lately slipper tails (they’re some sort of Caribbean species of undersea bug the resembles a mini-lobster tail), cherrystone clams, and (well scrubbed) mussels. A delightful mix of seafood flavors come together, and everyone picks and chooses the type of aquatic invertebrate they want to eat.
P.S. I never remember to add sausage. I can’t believe that it really adds something the recipe needs, especially smoky flavors – I like the clean ocean smell and flavor.
I like crawfish but how can you justify so much work peeling back the shells for so little meat?? That bothers me every time I eat it
You’re probably peeling too much. You just need to get a couple rings of shell removed to extract the whole bug. Pinch dem tails!
Do you eat the heads too?
nitpick, one “sucks” the heads. And Yes I do. Yum Yum.
Mmmmm… Crawdads.
Step 1: Suck the head.
Step 2: Eat the tail.
Step 3: use the heads as finger puppets to entertain your friends in PETA.
Are you able to eat crawdad “tamale” because the animal isn’t big enough to pick up alot of pollution? (which is why lobster tammale eating is ill-advised)
Nitpick - crawfish season is already in full swing, has been for a few weeks.
Sold in restaurants by the pound ($5.95/Lb) around here
2-3 pounds is perfect
Been enjoying them on a regular basis for about a month
I never peel. Pull them in two, and you can easily extract the tail meat with your teeth.
OP, lots of people have both shrimp and crawfish in a low county boil. I’ve always used both.
Maybe the season starts later up here. I haven’t seen any live ones in stores yet. (OTOH, maybe I’m just going to the wrong stores.)
Had crawdad boil once on a kayak trip, prepared by genuine Cajuns.
Was wonderful. Didn’t suck the heads though.
Sausage sounds like a good addition.
I just got home from a crawfish boil, about an hour ago. Definitely in season now.
Good stuff.
-D/a
Practice, practice. When I was in grad school in Lafayette, we had a boil on the Atchafalaya every spring, at the camp of the uncle of one of the grad students. They made pots and pots of mudbugs, and competing against some real Cajuns for them hones your skills, I-gawr-an-tee.
If you are down in South Louisiana and want a crawfish boil without doing it yourself, I recommend Richards in Abbeville. It was outstanding when we lived there 32 years ago, and we took our kids back 15 years ago and it was still outstanding. So outstanding that it drove our daughter right out of being a vegetarian. They have things besides crawfish there now, but don’t lose focus.
Stores? I thought you just scooped 'em up out of the roadside ditches… oh wait, this is WA State - I was thinking of fresh asparagus 
I am flying down to New Orleans next week (my 15th annual Jazzfest) and I have invitations to a couple of backyard boils–I enjoy the get-togethers, but the crawfish themselves are not too much of a draw.
I like crawfish as an ingredient in pastas, or various prepared dishes, but eating boiled bugs is too messy, too much of a hassle for a such a small amount of actual food. Still, I am looking forward to catching up with old friends, and I suppose I will have a couple of crawfish during the festivities, but will plan on finding some real food at some point, and letting those who really enjoy them have my share…
God I’m hungry.
If you pinch the tail correctly, the meat will just pop loose and you can squeeze it into your mouth. No peeling necessary.
Who taught you heathens how to eat crawfish?