prepping crawfish?
 

Crawfish season isant to far away and I plan to do some trapping this year and I know you have to prep them to clean all the mud out of thier system and most people ive herd of use a combo of salt and water but my question is how much salt to add to the water? I dont wanna kill them with to much and I dont wanna add to little so any information is greatly appriciated thanks, sean

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

Sean,
I did a search and came up with this.
Thought about cutting it out of the rec. but then you might like it.
Good luck,
Rick

CAJUN BOILED CRAWFISH
Equipment:
One very large pot, approximately 18-20 gallons, with cover. One propane burner big enough to easily bring this pot to a boil. A large utensil used to stir the pot (a small paddle, broom handle, or thick, clean(ed) branch cut to about 3 feet).
Ingredients: (in order of use)
1/2 pound salt (for cleaning crawfish)
2 ounces ground cayenne pepper
One package Crawfish Boil Seasoning
5-10 pounds small red potatoes cut into quarters
5 large yellow onions cut into quarters
4 large lemons cut into halves
24 ounces of fresh mushrooms (small to medium sized whole ones)
1 ounce bay leaves
1 clove garlic diced
One 40 lb sack of live crayfish
12 half-pieces of corn (preferably fresh)
Preparation:
Thoroughly wash the crawfish in a large "foot tub' by rinsing and draining twice, until rinse water is reasonably clean. Cover crawfish in tub again with water, and add 1/2 pound of salt (the salt is added to purge and clean the crawfish prior to eating). Stir for no longer than 3 minutes, and drain water. Immediately fill the tub again with cool water, leaving out the salt, and stir for 3 minutes, then drain (if the crawfish are allowed to soak in the water too long, they will die).
Inspect and discard dead crawfish, bait and other debris that may be present. For a 40 lb sack of crawfish, fill an 18-20 gallon pot with about 10 gallons of water (or enough water to cover crawfish and vegetables when they are put in). Bring to a boil.
Cooking:
Add cayenne pepper and crawfish boil seasoning. Bring mixture to a boil. In the basket (that fits into the pot), place bay leaves, potatoes, lemons, onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Place the basket in the boiling water, and boil these vegetables and seasonings for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Carefully add live crawfish into the basket, which is already in the pot of boiling water. Stir, cover, and bring back to a boil. Remove cover and let the whole thing boil for 4 minutes. Remove entire pot (with basket in it) from heat (or turn of heat), add corn, stir, and keep covered for 5-20 minutes. The longer the crawfish are left to stand like this (in excess of 5 minutes), the more seasoned and spicy they will be. You also want to cook them long enough to release them from their shell to make eating them easier.
Start sampling (tasting) the crawfish after 5 minutes (of standing) to achieve the desired taste and consistency. Personally, we
recommend that you let the crawfish stand covered until they begin to sink, which means they are thoroughly marinated with
the water and seasonings, which is somewhere around 15-20 minutes. They should be quite spicy by that time, so be careful.
How to Peel Crayfish
1. Grab the tip of the head and the tip of the tail; twist in opposite directions. Discard the head.
2. Grab the tip of the tail; twist the top part of the tail.
3. Pinch the bottom part of the tail; take the meat out. Remove the black vein on top of the tail and discard. The meat is now ready for consumption.

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

Thanks for the info!

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

The last that i heard, the official position by the Agriculture Extension folks in Louisiana is that it is bad touse salt to purge crawfish. Dunno exactly why and don;t want to argue the point, but not as many people do it as in the past. If the crawfish are really dirty, then hosing them off in the sack and then soaking them once or twice in clean water for a while seems to do the trick. If they are clean, then one soaking should do it. Of course, if you are really Jonesing for mudbugs, then you may just hose them off, then straight to the pot.

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

I have no idea. All i've done is catch 'em, kill 'em, boil 'em, eat 'em. Also, you can buy 'em in a bag here from the store that are pre cooked and all. They're really good

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

I know this is off the beaten trail but we have a lot of crawfish
and only catch a few in minnow traps or by hand for fishing
as we do not catch many. So my question is how do you folks
catch them?

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

picture a store bought minnow trap X10 thats the size traps I use they're 4' long and about a foot across. Generally set out about 15-20 of them a night. And I use old smelly mullet for bait and catch more then any one could ever want. Never tried to catch a crawfish in maine but im sure its similar to how I do it down here.

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

Thanks Rusty, I build my own bait traps about that size and will have to trythem on that. As I've only used them for just minnows.

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

I use hardware cloth to make all mine so the holes which are about 3/8x3/8" let the minnows out and the craw fish stay in. Only problems I ever have are turtles getting ahold of the traps and crushing them into nothing. But it pretty much looks like a tube 1' across 4' long with 2 funnels(made of hardware cloth) at each end.

RE: prepping crawfish?
 

Thanks again Rusty, All mine has been for minnows with 1/4" holes so I will try making a couple with the 3/8" holes and see what happens. And the funnels are they squared or round like a minnow trap?