Crawfish Boil Recipe - anyone have any tips? (how much, restaurants)

[gary5565]

Hi everyone, I have cooked about 5 small crawfish boils so far and each time I change my recipe a little bit to hopefully make the bugs taste a bit better. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for me?

-add spice, lemons, garlic to the pot and bring to a boil.
-add potatoes and carrots and let boil for about 7 mins, add corn, sausage, mushrooms and let boil till corn is done about 5 more mins. then dump in cooler close lid.
-bring water back to boil and then dump in crawfish.
-boil crawfish for about 2-3 mins, then kill the heat leave the lid off and stir the crawfish quite a few times.
-let the crawfish soak for about 10 mins and then start tasting crawfish every 2 - 3 mins until they are done.


I have tried adding ice to the soak, cooling the pot with garden hose and boiling them longer with less soak time. Dont get me wrong each time the crawfish are good I would just like to hear what someone with more experience has to say.

Thanks,

[marcopolo2000]

Mushrooms? lemons? carrots? I haven't heard of that before when it comes to boiling crawfish.

I use ALOT of seasoning; Swamp dust or something like that. I also chop up some onions,bell peppers,garlic and celery. I throw in the potatoes before adding the crawfish. I usually add sausage and corn last.

[gary5565]

thanks for the reply, I have tried cooking the potatoes and corn with the crawfish but it seems that when I soak the crawfish the corn becomes a bit soggy so thats why I have been boiling it first.

How long do your boil the crawfish for? and how much soak time?

[tstone]

The trick to make them 'taste better' is an absolutely disgusting amount of salt. National chain restaurant technique.

[gary5565]

Originally Posted by tstone

The trick to make them 'taste better' is an absolutely disgusting amount of salt. National chain restaurant technique.

Hmm not quite what I was looking for, my crawfish taste great but IMO always room for improvement.

[deckhanddavy]

We use oranges rather than lemon. I think it really gives it a special taste. Also, a lot of the asian crawfish restaurants use this method and I find it to taste much better IMO. Some places are pretty bad where all you can taste is cayenne pepper and salt...ugh.

Seriously though, oranges!!

[Supermac34]

It is very difficult to over season crawfish.

[jaydes]

I like mine really spicy. My faves are made with that bag seasoning its red. I think it Louisana brand?
Just corn and baby potatoes. I have never had them with carrots or mushrooms. Hmm.Make sure you clean them GOOD before cooking.

[gary5565]

Hmm can you clarify how much spice you add? I dont know quite how big my pot is but it holds about 15 lbs of crawfish and i have been using 2 of the small bags of spice I think they are 1 lb each....... Should I be using more?

[jaydes]

SOrry Im no help on the amount. I know for me i like ALOT of spice. The crawfish are completely covered in it when done and my fingers are orange,nose is running and dont dare forget and rub your eyes. LOL.very spicey. im hungery now. it says on back of bag a ratio to use though. But im sure we use extra when doing it.