Crawdad/Crayfish recipe

[Simple Hunter]

Anyone have a good way to prepare crawdads to eat?

[Elkhunter1]

All I do is pop their heads off, peal the shell off of the tail and you can cook them like shrimp. If you are looking for more flavor you can sprinkle them with salt,pepper, paprika, chili powder and sauté them in butter. They are good either way.

Anyone have a good way to prepare crawdads to eat?

[savagman]

Anyone have a good way to prepare crawdads to eat?

Boil a pot of water with a liberal dose of old bay seasoning. Drop the live crawdads in and boil for a few minutes. Peel and eat - dip in garlic butter if you like. You can get fancy and boil potatoes, corn, sausage, all in the same water. Yum.

[oz31p]

Anyone have a good way to prepare crawdads to eat?

Boil a pot of water with a liberal dose of old bay seasoning. Drop the live crawdads in and boil for a few minutes. Peel and eat - dip in garlic butter if you like. You can get fancy and boil potatoes, corn, sausage, all in the same water. Yum.

dont try this method................................................with out inviting me!!!!

[Jackal]

When are we going to go catch some of these crawfish?

[John O]

I went up to the lake with a youth group last summer and we caught 125 of them. Here is what we did and it worked great:

 

Boil them in a pot for about 5-7 minutes. Take them out one at a time and peel the tails, making sure to strip out the vein that runs down the tail (This is really important. They will taste like mud if you don't). Wash the tail really well and put into a pan. Once you have them all in a pan. Fry in butter, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and creole seasoning. We have then done two different things with them. One is to add them to noodles and alfredo sauce, and the other is to make soft tacos with them. If you do it right they are awesome!!! If you do it wrong they will taste like crap. Good luck!

[youngbuck]

I use crab boil or something similar. It is illegal to transport live crawfish in AZ, even to your house for food. They do taste better when they are brough home alive.

[1denogean]

that vein your calling isnt a vain its fecices aka poop thats why

[John O]

that vein your calling isnt a vain its fecices aka poop thats why

 

 

Yep, I know. Just didn't want to scare too many people away. Too late now. That's why we wash them really really well after stripping out the "Vein".

 

Couple photos of the day:

 

[Chef]

That's what I'm talking about right there!

 

One thing to note, don't overcook them as they seriously get rubbery and tough.

They have a different texture than shrimp, a little "grainier" but have good flavor.

 

If you want to make tacos out of them, cook them up in butter etc, then do a rough chop on them with a knife, before putting them on tortillas. I sometimes "melt" some cream cheese into the pan too so it becomes part of the sauce. A little fresh lime once on the taco and...YUM!

 

I'm getting hungry now.

[billrquimby]

I keep them alive in a bucket and keep changing the water every hour or so until the water clears up. When they have totally purged themselves, I pop them into salted boiling water and cook until firm.

 

Bill Quimby

[Simple Hunter]

Hey everybody thanks for the help:

 

I took a little bit from everyone and they turned out delicious, here's what I did:

 

The crawdads were dead when I transported them, but they miraculously came back to life when I got to the cabin

 

I boiled the resurrected crawdads with some salt for about 4-5 mins

 

Then I pulled their head off and peeled the shell off the tail end. I found that you could grab the exposed intestine and pull it out in one piece. Then I washed them off good with water and threw them in a sautee pan.

 

I threw in couple slices of butter and two cloves of garlic and sauteed them. They were delicious. If I had to do it over again, I would try to catch at least 100 'dads to make a decent appetizer. It was a lot of work for very little gain.

 

Plus the 'dads in the Creek are not as big as those in the lakes.

[.270]

here's a little tip that will help anyone who likes crawdads. look at the tip of the tail. they have i think 5 "feathers" on the end of their tail. grip the middle feather and pull it straight out. the "mud" vein comes out with it, 99% of the time. that way you don't have to do the purge deal and all that. try it, it works. it even works on lobsters. we eat em by the thousands. favorite way is to pull the mud vein, boil em up until done, nice and red, in a bucket or tub or whatever, peel the tails, then either dip em in butter and chow on em that way or you can make jambalaya, which we are havin' by the way tomorrow night for dinner. (my wife found crawdad tails at walmart) or you can make tacos or burros, or a crawdad omelette, or a po'boy or whatever. Lark.

[Chef]

My mouth totally started watering reading that last sentence Lark. Seriously.

[Coues 'n' Sheep]

Seen Man Vs. Food in Maine and they had a Po'Boy.....Mmmmm

 

Gotta try Lark's veining trick for sure...

 

And a Question....anyone notice a difference in flavor in lake vs. stream crawdads?