Recommendations on where to buy live crawfish? (~200 pounds)

CourtOfDreams · Apr 26, 2018

Pole said: ↑

Oh wow........blast from the past. One thing I've been doing lately, and it really helps for large boils, and especially if you want to have a bit of extra time to hang out with guests and eat some bugs with them is this: I now use my large pot (it's MUCH bigger than the typical crawfish pot) and bring it to a boil with nothing but salted water. Because it's so much boiling water, it cooks the bugs real quick because it hardly stops boiling when you drop them in. Anyway, I lower a basket of purged crawfish into the boiling, salted water, and I wait until just the first layer on top starts to float. I then remove the basket (which fits into my smaller, normal sized pot) and I dunk it into plain water that normal pot to arrest the cooking. Let it sit for about a minute, and then I pull it out and use the hose to really spray off the crawfish. This gets rid of any of that scum that develops when they boil, and further cleans them of any dirt loosened by boiling water. Then I throw them into a cooler with a bit of ice. I do this with all of my crawfish until they are all cooked, and I generally complete this process about an hour or so before guests arrive. I'll then pre-cook (just until done) all of my corn, potatoes, mushrooms and any other veggies I normally do (sometimes broccolini, sometimes artichokes......whatever and wherever the mood takes me)........I do this in seasoned water, but not heavily seasoned. I take them out and put them in trays, and then I readjust the water seasoning and add butter---basically my normal seasoning, but I get this water just "warm." Then a bit before guests arrive, I take out a basket of pre-cooked crawfish and put them in the warm--almost, but not quite simmering--seasoned water, and I let them sit for about fifteen minutes. Then I add enough of the pre-cooked veggies for that batch of crawfish, and then I turn up the heat. I remove the batch before the water boils and serve.

What this accomplishes (besides making the process easier and less time consuming when guests are actually present) is that it allows the crawfish to sit in the seasoned water longer without actually being at a "cooking" temperature. I've found that there's a fine line between leaving crawfish in the seasoning water long enough to absorb all of the flavors you want and overcooking them. This process eliminates that issue. Plenty of seasoning; never overcooked. I've also found that no matter how clean your crawfish are, the dirt and scum accumulated from cooking them "kills" your boiling water pretty quickly and later batches are never as good......even if you adjust seasoning. The pre-cooking and rinsing part of this process almost eliminates and certainly postpones that issue.
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That honestly sounds like more work. I did take a snapshot of the recipe you posted back in the day though and will try it in a different pot.

I was actually in a crawfish cookoff competition around a month ago. Got second place out of around 20ish teams so I was ok with it, But the winning team did the VietCajun style but did the boil with nothing but Sunny D smooth.

Never saw that. The sunny d made them super bright and garlic butter sauce they tossed it in was really good. I was ok with second after trying theirs. It was really fn good. I just did the very spicy and well-seasoned texas style.

But I did a personal boil last week and I did sneak 1 g of sunny d in the boil though, it did make a difference. Give it a shot sometime.

swyyyguy · Apr 26, 2018

R0ckets03 said: ↑

Is he really a Mavs fan? I know an awesome place, but I aint telling no stinkin Mavs fan.
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lol no, i am not a mavs fan. i've met up multiple people here on clutchfans and they know i'm a die-hard rockets fan.

DOYG86 said: ↑

why's he have a mavs fan reputation then?
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i honestly have no idea! i hang out with multiple people on here who all know where my fanhood lies.

Pole · Apr 27, 2018

CourtOfDreams said: ↑

That honestly sounds like more wor.
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It is more work...........not by a huge margin, but it does add some time. To me, it's worth it in that I end up with a much better product, and I'm able to shuffle some of the work to a time slot before the actual party which gives me more time to spend with my guests.

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Recommendations on where to buy live crawfish? (~200 pounds)

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