# Mother's Day Crawfish Boil With instructions



## tbrtt1 (May 13, 2014)

I have a lot of friends and family ask how I boil my crawfish. So I took some pics of the boil I did for my wife on Mother's day. Here are pics with instructions. I did not show the steps for cleaning them, but I can do that at some point. It is just a matter of putting them in an ice chest with a drain plug. Put them in, fill with water, stir around good and drain. Do this several times until the water runs clear out of the drain plug. 

Start with a big pot half full of water on a large propane burner. I use an 82 quart pot (I think! I have had it so long I can't remember). Crank up the burner and add:

I entire carton of Zatarans Crab Boil, a small bottle of liquid boil and about a 1/3 box of salt. I add a little extra salt since the potatoes, and other veggies absorb a salt and seasoning. 













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Add Garlic, Onions and lemons:













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Boil the veggies and seasoning for about 30 minutes (or more) to extract the flavor













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Then depending on the size of the potatoes, add them and boil them for 10-20 minutes. If they are really small, then you can just add them when you put in the mudbugs. 













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Then pull out the basket and add small potatoes (I added a few extra taters since I wanted to make tater salad for munching on all week) and sausage













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Pour live, washed crawfish on top.













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Drop them in the boiling water.













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Bring the water back to a boil and boil no more that 90 seconds to 2 mins. This is very important. By the time the water comes back to a boil the babies are cooked. NEVER BOIL FOR SE

VERAL MINUTES!! YOU RUN A GREAT RISK OF OVER COOKING THEM! Overcooked crawfish are punishable by jail time in Louisiana. 

After 90 Seconds of boiling, cut the heat off. Then add fresh corn and mushrooms and stir with a large paddle to get the corn and shrooms submerged. 













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Notice that the crawfish are floating and pushing up. This is because they are hot and expanding with positive pressure in the body cavities. Put the lid on and let soak for 7-10 minutes. After 7-10 minutes stir with large paddle every 2 minutes or so to make sure all the crawfish spend some time submerged. It also helps to dissipate the heat. As the critters cool the will loose the positive pressure and begin to absorb the seasoned water (at this point it is actually a stock) 

Notice they are sinking in the water:













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After a total soak time of about 20 minutes and they are sufficiently sinking down and absorbed the stock, pull the basked and let it drain for a couple of minutes.













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The next step is the best. Pour them out on some newspaper (it isn't a crawfish boil without a newspaper lined table) and eat!!













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## brooksy (May 13, 2014)

That's a table I'd love to be sitting at!!  Just had some mudbugs a coworker made yesterday. Love them little lobsters!


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## chef willie (May 13, 2014)

outstanding display.....let the good times roll....Willie


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## nozzleman (May 13, 2014)

Oh my that looks wonderful. My sisters neighborhood had a crawfish boil a few weeks ago cooking over 100 lb of mud bugs, much to my delight.


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## eman (May 13, 2014)

I boil almost the same way except i boil the shrooms and corn w/ the bugs and as soon as i kill the fire i dump 5 -10 lbs of ice on top to fast cool and make the crawfish draw up the seasoning.


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## dirtsailor2003 (May 13, 2014)

Gotta love a good bug boil!


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## leah elisheva (May 15, 2014)

So fun to see! Fabulous!  What an event!!! Cheers! - Leah


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## moikel (May 16, 2014)

Leah Elisheva said:


> So fun to see! Fabulous!  What an event!!! Cheers! - Leah


I am with the mermaid on this ,its all about the sense of theatre that comes with it. I can't make it here because you just can't by our version of crawfish at a price that works.Caught thousands as a kid but thats the good old days.

Obviously to me its very different because I come from a whole other country without the cajun influences that seem to me to be a big part of it. That there are company products that go with it ,like Zatarains & little regional tweaks only make it more fascinating .


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## dogboa (May 26, 2014)

My wife returned from a road trip to Mississippi last Thursday, making a stop at Kenny's Seafood in Slidell on Wednesday. 80# of river caught crawfish was on the way! I got everything ready to go for when she got home. Now, I only have a 42 quart pot, so I have to do them in batches. I use 1 pint of liquid crawfish/crab boil concentrate, 1/2 a bag of seasoning mix, 2 Zatarain's extra spicy seasoning bags, salt and lemons. I prep a cooler with 10# of ice and when the boil is a rolling, I take several quarts of the boil "stock" and dump it on the ice. This creates a good soak. I replenish the "stock", let it come back to a rolling boil and its time to add the mud bugs. As soon as they are ready, they go into the soak. I can get about 20# cooked in each batch, so I ended up doing a total of 40#, which is enough to fill the soak cooler. When all 40# are in the soak they are at a temp on the hotter side of warm. They go a good twenty minutes in the soak, then onto the table and for me, I like a nice sprinkle of Tony Cachere's creole seasoning. Did the other 40# the next day. The last batch each day got the vegis and Andouille.

With these mud bugs, I had to soak and rinse three times to get clear water and then a salt purge soak (15 minutes) and final rinse. Our main goal for this boil was to pick tails for future use. I can eat a lot of crawfish, especially with plenty of ice cold Abita Amber, but 80# would be a stretch for two people.


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