Cleening/Cooking Crawfish

[Hoobie]

With All the talk about Crawfish I bought a trap and was wondering how to cleen/cook a crawfish.any info would be nice thanks!
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[southernman]

when ive eaten 'em in 'nawlins, you just boil them in a pot with spices, then serve them up whole . . . grab one, pull off the tail, eat the 1/100 oz of meat thats there, and then suck the juice out of the head . . . takes about 50 to make an appetizer,



thats it . .



sm
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[chefwhofishes]

The easiest no hassle way to prepare them is to simply rinse the creatures off in cold water, heat up some boiling salted water, and toss them in. Boil for approximately 4-6 minutes or until the shell is bright orange and the meat is no longer transparent. Once cooked let sit for 3 minutes and then separate the tail end from the rest of the body by gripping the head in one hand and the tail in the other. Gently pull and twist at the same time and the tail should pop right out. The tail is the most substantial meat on the dads, but the claws, head and even the gooey green innards don't taste so bad. Spice up some melted butter with cayenne pepper, garlic, and bay leaves; and you have got your own mini mud lobster feast!

Save the water in which the dads were boiled in to make soup, sauce, whatever.

hope this helps!

chadthechefwhofishes
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[TubeDude]

[cool]Been eatin' mudbugs fer a whole lotta years. There's a couple of different approaches...cooking them whole, or precleaning them.

If you gotta kill 'em before transporting them, you might as well clean them and ice them before taking them home. 1. Twist off the tails and the claws (on the larger ones). 2. Put them in a plastic bag or sealable container you can keep on ice. (don't soak out the flavor in ice water) 3. Cook and eat.

There's one other thing you can do while the tails are still uncooked, and that is "deveining". When you twist the tail away from the main body, you will notice a dark "vein" hanging out the end of the tail section. Just as with shrimp, removing that "vein" (excretory canal) will improve both the flavor and the esthetics of your crawdad experience. To do this, hold the segmented tail section in one hand, and twist the flipper portion with the other hand. When the flippers are twisted off the tail, the "vein" comes with it. The remaining part of the tail contains most of the edible meat on the 'dads. Steam them, fry them, boil them or whatever. Do not overcook. Just like shrimp, they are better when just cooked to opaque white. You can use a nutcracker, if you are a wimp. If you have strong fingers, just crack them like peanuts and pick out the meat. I like to do up a bunch and then either dump the cooked and cleaned meat pieces in melted garlic butter or sprinkle them (cold) into a salad.

If you wanna do the real Cajun thang, go to the seasoning department of the market and get some Zatarain Crab Boil. These are sacks of combined spices that you just toss in the pot with crabs or crawdads, along with a little vinegar. It cooks in a great spicy flavor. Get the water boiling, put the bag in to flavor up the water for a few minutes and then dump in the whole 'dads. When they turn red, and you can twist off the tails easily, they are ready to serve. A real Loozianna crawdad boil figures on about 2# of the crustaceans per diner. Depending on size, that will be anywhere from 15 to 25 'dads.

I think that 2# figure is averaging in women and children. That does not ever count me, or my kind. We mess up the calculations. Heck, I can polish off a couple of pounds of the cleaned meat myself.

I used to dive for some huge good-tasting 'dads in the American River, in Sacramento, just after the shad run. When the big shad died off, they would settle to the bottom of deep holes, where the crawdads would cluster by the thousands. A pair of gloves, a wire mesh fish basket and a deep breath would bag me ten to twenty bugs a dive. I brought home large ice chests full of only the biggest specimens. Some of the claws were bigger than my big fat thumb. Took awhile to preclean them, but when I cooked up whole canning kettles full of tails and claws, my kids and I didn't leave much evidence. What a great excuse to eat butter and garlic.

By the way, for the southern Utah boys, I hear tell that some of the biggest crawdaddies in the U.S. live in Gunlock.
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[Stickhorse]

If you de-vein the little critters first they taste alot better and you don't get flourescent crawdad poop all over your face. Be fore you throw them in the pot grab the middle two fins on the end of they're tail and pull. This will clean them. Then put them in the pot to boil.
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[southernman]

oh man, youre making me hungry!



sm
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[Wiper24]

HI IFG
Sounds like you need to throw a IFG dinner for BFT when you get back. You can cook us up some of those mini lobsters. From what you said I guess that you are over in
Saudi. Well if you are then I appreciate what you are doing for us. I hope that you can come home soon. Wiper24
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[Hoobie]

Thanks everyone for the info I caught a couple last night and they were great, however I think I will freeze any more I get till I have enough for at least a good sized snack.

Thanks Again And Good Fishin![]
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[FishFearMe]

Alright call me stupid, IFG What is with this obsession you have with Llams? Just wondering if I am missing out on the next slice bread thing.
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[polokid]

I know it may not be very orig. but it is easy. I grab a packet of crab boil at smiths, a pot and a stove, throw the crab boil in the pot, wait till it boils, throw in live crawdads, let cook till they are bright orange/red.
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[Fish-Dog]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned above is they taste better if you scrub the moss and mud off them before boiling. I use a stiff scrub brush 10 to 15 seconds per mudbug. I also use small pliers and pull the center fins? out of the tail to clean out the vein.

fdg
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[RipNLips]

Although opinions may very, I think the DWRs article about Crawdads is a pretty darn good one. See [url "http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/fishing/crayfish.html"]http://www.wildlife.utah.gov/fishing/crayfish.html[/url]. If we lived in a state where you could transport the Crawdads, I'd probably feed them cornmeal for a day or two and keep changing the water in the buckets. Eating the corn meal cleans out there systems and also helps keep them from [size 1]cannibalizing[/size] each other while they're in the buckets. If you were camping at the place you caught them, I suppose you could feed them cornmeal while you were there and kill them before you left.
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[flynhawaiian]

Hey Hoobie, just curious as to what kind of trap you ended up getting to catch those 'dads? I went out and ordered one as well last week from this site [url "http://www.terrybullard.com"]www.terrybullard.com[/url] Got the Sportsman Pro from him. Since my in-laws have a cabin on the back end of Scofield Reservoir figured I could get a bigger haul with a trap and bring em home to freeze. Thanks for starting this post, I had questions about bringing those things home as well! I'll let you know how the trap works when I get it in the water!
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]If you want to cook "mudbugs" why not go to the best mudbug cooks in the world? "dem cajuns". Boiling them is all good but how about expanding that to an Etouffee?[/size][/font] [font "Arial"][size 3][font "Arial Black"][#0000ff][/#0000ff][/font][/size][/font] [center][font "Arial"][size 3][font "Arial Black"][#0000ff]Étouffée d'écrevisses au maire Joubert[/#0000ff][/font]
[/size][font "Arial Black"][size 3](Crawfish Étouffée by Curtis Joubert,
former mayor of the City of Eunice, LA) [/size][/font][/font][/center] [indent] [ul] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 pound crawfish tails [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]Salt [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]Black pepper [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]Onion powder [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]Garlic powder [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]4 tablespoons butter [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 medium yellow onion, chopped [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]2 cloves garlic, minced [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 cup finely chopped bell peppers [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 cup water or fish stock [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 bunch green onions, chopped, green part only [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 bunch parsley, minced (use Italian parsley) [/size][/font][/li][/ul][/indent] [left][font "Arial"][size 3]Season crawfish tails in a bowl with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Melt the butter and add the onions, garlic, and bell pepper, stirring constantly, and cook until wilted. Add the water or stock and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add the crawfish and simmer another 15-20 minutes. Add onion tops and parsley and simmer 5 minutes more. Ladle over hot, long-grain white rice. [/size][/font][/left] [left][font "Arial"][size 3]Serves four.[/size][/font][/left] [indent]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Or how about a Creole?[/size][/font] [center][font "Arial"][size 3][font "Arial Black"][#3333ff]Crawfish Creole[/#3333ff] [/font][/size][/font][/center][/indent] [ul] [ul] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 cup flour [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 cup oil [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]2 cups chopped onions [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 cup chopped celery [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]3 chopped cloves garlic [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]2 tablespoons chopped parsley [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]3 lbs. cooked and peeled crawfish tails [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 No. 2 can tomatoes [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]2 tablespoons chopped green onion tops [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]2 small cans tomato paste [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/4 teaspoon red pepper [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]3 teaspoons salt [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 teaspoon black pepper [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 cup chopped bell pepper [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]6 cups water[/size][/font][/li][/ul][/ul] [left][font "Arial"][size 3]Make a roux by cooking the flour and fat together until a golden brown. Stir constantly. Add onions, celery, bell pepper and half of the garlic. Cook until onion is transparent. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and stir to mix well. Cook for 5 minutes. Add water, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Add 3 pounds crawfish tails and garlic. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add parsley and onion tops and cook 5 minutes longer. Serve over fluffy steamed rice.[/size][/font][/left][size 3][font "Arial"]Serves 10 generously.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"]Maybe a Jambalaya?[/font]

[font "Arial"][/font][/size] [indent] [center][font "Arial Black"][#0000ff][size 3]Crawfish Jambalaya[/size][/#0000ff][/font][/center] [ul] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 lb. or 2 1/2 cups cooked and peeled crawfish tails [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/4 cup crawfish fat (optional) [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 1/2 cups water [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]2 1/2 teaspoons salt [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 tablespoon flour [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]2 tablespoons salad oil [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 cup parsley (2 tsp. dehydrated) [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 cup bell pepper chopped [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 1/8 cups rice-uncooked (long grain) [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 teaspoon black pepper [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 cup green onion pepper [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1 cup onion chopped fine [/size][/font] [li][font "Arial"][size 3]1/2 cup chopped celery[/size][/font][/li][/ul][/indent] [left][font "Arial"][size 3]Brown flour in oil to a golden brown. Add onions. Stir constantly until onions are almost cooked. Add 1 1/2 cups cold water and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add crawfish tails and fat; cook until crawfish turns pink. Add about 2 cups less 2 tablespoons water and bring to a boil. When water is rapidly boiling add remainder of ingredients. Stir to blend and cook on low heat covered for about 1/2 hour
or until rice is tender. Five minutes before serving, using a 2-prong fork, fluff up jambalaya so rice will have a tendency to fall apart.[/size][/font][/left] [left][font "Arial"][size 3][/size][/font][/left] [left][font "Arial"][size 3]Serves 4 to 5 people.[/size][/font][/left]
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[Hoobie]

I just got a circular one from Sportsmans Warehouse Its caught a few out at willard bay but not many Im trying to find a better place but i drove up to east canyon a few days ago and it still had a good layer of slush and not a lot of open water.
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[MountainMan]

Does anyone know how you could catch one o' them buggers at Kolob? You can't use bait there, but would it count in a 'dad trap? Any other way to do it?
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[RipNLips]

Lots of decent sized Dad's in Strawberry. I've done particularly well in the Indian Creek area after dark. Just need to waite a little longer for the ice to come off.
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