Question on cooking Crawchie southern style

[seedtick]

whole

same technique as crawfish but boil a few minutes longer

[dawallace45]

Growing up we always cooked the crabs whole but recently most of us have been cleaning the crabs first , I shied away from it first off as I thought that it would detract from the flavor but I'm coming around as I've been finding that the taste tends to be cleaner , really want to try it cooked with the spices

Been looking on youtube as to the southern style crab and crawfish boil and there doesn't seem to be any sort of set pattern as how to do it , some throw the corn and potatoes in and cook in the spices and then take them out when cooked and then cook the crawfish but others cook them all together and still others cook the corn and potatoes after , how do you fellers do it ?

David

[Kayak Jack]

David, I have no opinion on sequencing the food, except for maybe heating capacity of your heat source. Putting all the food in at one time may over ride the stove's ability to keep up the boil? If the fire can keep up, I''d be tempted to do it all at one time for convenience and flavor sake.

[seedtick]

everything goes in at the same time

i use new (small) potatoes as they cook quicker, if you're using large potatoes, cut them up so they cook faster

[Wannabe]

So David,
It's been a few days. Have ya tried boiling any Southern Style yet?
Bob

[dawallace45]

Bob

Only just got my traps back from my brother yesterday , I'm going to leave them out in the yard for a few days so the rain can wash the cat shit off , need to get some more spices but we don't shop till next week , will put some traps out after that

David

[Kayak Jack]

David, if they were traps for catfish, you'd wanna leave that - bait - on there. Being for mudbugs - clean'em up!

[JEM]

Growing up in WI, we did a few fish boils with the pot over an open fire out in the country where my grandparents lived. I seem to recall a simple solution if the water didn't keep boiling: 1 cup of lighter fluid. Might have been gasoline or even kerosene. I don't recall as I was like 8. But I do recall my parents making us stand waaaaaay back and seeing the flame shoot well over the tripod holding the pot over the fire. The tripod was about 6' since it was tall as my dad.

[islandpiper]

Matt, i got to a number of Door County Fish Boils. that whole FLAME UP thing started out as a way to boil the fat off the top of the pot, but soon became a way to impress the tourists from Illinois with some rural shock and awe. I was always told it was gasoline....and we saw it dumped a couple of different ways. I suspect that the IQ of the dumper could have been judged by the length of the handle stick on the cup. piper

[Kayak Jack]

"Mommy!! Mommy!! See the funny man run and wave his arms!"

[Kahuna]

HI! My Cousin who lives in Louisiana says that they always put the crawdads in fresh water for several days before cooking them in order to "PURGE" the digestive tracts of the buggers. In other words..CLEAN THEM OUT GOOD before cooking!!
Kahuna