Louisiana Treat

So let me ask you... What looks like seafood, tastes like seafood, and smells likes seafood but doesn't come from the sea? It's a crawfish, or "mudbug" a freshwater shellfish that is a traditional Louisiana food staple.

Nothing symbolizes Louisiana and Cajuns quite like the veritable crawfish. In fact, in 1983, the Governor of Louisiana designated his hardy little critter as the official state crustacean making Louisiana the only state in the union with an official "crustacean."

These small creatures resemble tiny lobsters, but they are more tender than lobsters and have a unique flavor. Often found in the mud along freshwater bayous, they are lovingly referred to as "mudbugs" by natives.

Almost all of the crawfish consumed in the U.S. comes from Louisiana. A favorite tradition in Louisiana in the spring and summer is to hold a crawfish boil where friends and family gather to eat sometimes hundreds of pounds of crawfish at a time and party hardy as only true Cajuns (and Cajun wannabes) can!

You can count on most people eating three to five pounds of crawfish at a time, so you can see how a hundred pounds can easily and quickly be consumed. Music, lots of beer, and fun are also important ingredients at these gatherings! There is no such thing as a quiet, elegant, sedate crawfish boil!

Local Indians are credited with discovering how to harvest, cook and consume crawfish before the Cajuns arrived. They would bait long reeds with meat, put them in the water, and then retrieve the reeds with the crawfish attached. Using this method, they would harvest literally bushels of crawfish at a time. In time, nets were introduced, and the current method of harvesting is to use a crawfish trap.

However, according to Cajun legend, crawfish are descendents of the Maine lobster. After the Cajuns (Acadians) were banished from Nova Scotia, it has been said that the lobsters were so lonesome for the Acadians, that they set off across the country to find them. During this long, treacherous journey, it is said that the lobster began to shrink in size, and by the time they found the Cajuns in Louisiana, they no longer looked like lobsters any more!

So, if you want to try your hand at preparing a traditional Louisiana crawfish boil, below you will find some basic directions.

As I said earlier, most people eat between three and five pounds of crawfish at a crawfish boil, so it is imperative to get plenty of these little buggers. They usually come in sacks of 30 to 40 pounds.

Now, unlike a crab boil or shrimp boil, you don't boil the crawfish by themselves. Traditionally, you throw some corn, potatoes, and Cajun smoked sausage into the pot also along with lemon and onions for extra seasonings. You will also need to get some traditional Cajun seasoning which you can purchase online or at most markets in Louisiana.

Before you boil the crawfish, it is imperative that you clean them. The favored way to clean these little critters is to use salt. Salt almost always guarantees a good clean batch, however, some crawfish may die in the process. You do not want to add dead crawfish to boil. These dead critters are not only are difficult to peel, they are extremely nasty to eat.

The easiest way to salt crawfish is to add half a box of salt to the ice chest holding the crawfish and fill it with enough water to cover them and stir it up a bit. The water will get dirty very, very quickly and you can pick out the debris and dead crawfish while waiting for the crawfish to quit spitting out mud. (This really sounds nastier by the minute, doesn't it?) After, a few minutes you can drain the water and repeat the process without salt until the water runs pretty clear.

It is a good idea to have two ice chests available. In one you can do the purging of the crawfish, and in the other you can place the clean live ones. Again, and I can't stress this enough, you DO NOT want to cook dead crawfish.

While you are cleaning the crawfish, have someone start the pot boiling. An 80-quart pot is ideal filled about halfway with water. You will also need a basket for the pot to get the crawfish in and out of the pot.

Add your crawfish seasoning. As stated earlier, you can purchase this online or at most markets in Louisiana. It primarily consists of cayenne pepper and other herbs.

Throw in about half a dozen squeezed and halved lemons and get the mixture boiling.

While you are waiting for the water to boil, it is a good time to cut the sausage up and give the potatoes a good cleaning. Once the water starts to boil, place the sausage, potatoes and corn into the basket and boil them for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove the sausage and vegetables. They are ready for serving and can serve as an appetizer for the upcoming treat!

The water should be at a rolling boil at this point and it is almost time to commit the crawfish to their final bath. Put the live crawfish in the basket and insert them in the water. Stir them a bit, they will be wiggling, and cover the pot.

Boil them for about five to ten minutes, stir them again, turn off the heat and let them soak for another 15 minutes or so.

It is now time to feast! Drain the crawfish and then pour them out over the table which is traditionally covered in newspaper. Make sure you have plenty of beer on hand as well as hot sauce for those who like a little more kick to their meal!

Now, if you have never eaten crawfish, you may be completely baffled and have no idea how to eat them.

You eat crawfish with your hands. Don't even think to ask for any utensils as you will be laughed at.

With one hand, take hold of the head of the crawfish, and with your other hand, grab hold of the tail. Now gently squeeze the tail end of the body close to where the head is. Keep the head still and slowly and carefully twist the tail end, applying pressure. The meat will twist out of the head.

Put the head down and slide your finger or thumb under the first few segments of the tail and peel away exposing the tail. With the shell still partially in one piece, take the tail meat into your mouth, and bite into the meat. The meat will pop into your mouth leaving the tail behind. Now, to show that you are a true Cajun, take the head of the crawfish that you put aside and suck the yummy, spicy, hot juices out of it. SLURP!

You have now channeled your inner Cajun and experienced a truly unique culinary treat!

- Julie O'Hara 2023

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