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How To Boil Crawfish

Mar 23, 2020
Hello, welcome back to How to Barbecue, right, I'm Malcolm Reed today, I've got my friend Mark Williams here from Swine Life BBQ Mark, we're not going to light up the pits, what are we going to do today? We'll cook crabs today, dead gum, right? two bags of

crawfish

here, they both weigh 33 pounds each, we have two pots, we're going to show you our method like we do it here in North Mississippi, cooking

crawfish

, we're going to cook them in one pot. We're going to soak them in a pot, they're both seasoned the same, but we really get all that flavor in the crabs by soaking them at a lower temperature and

boil

ing them to avoid having to put all that spicy seasoning on the outside.
how to boil crawfish
The flavor will be in the meat of that head, so when we're pinching and sucking, it'll be Flavortown can't beat it, mark, I've got all the ingredients to go with it, you ready to show these people how we're going to do it. Let's do it, let's start cooking, so notice, today we have two pots. These are 80 quart aluminum pots that we used to cook crabs in. They are placed on jet burners. We have propane tanks hooked up. This is a standard crayfish. What we're going to do first is put some water in these pots and we want to fill them a little more than half full because remember we're going to drop those 33 pound bags of crabs into these pots, we're just going to use hose water, so To light these pots, what you need to do is aim the flame well that way you don't lose your arm, light it and then slowly turn on the gas and it will be ready to go, so now we have the water.
how to boil crawfish

More Interesting Facts About,

how to boil crawfish...

In the pot we are ready to give it flavor. The first thing I'm going to use is about four and a half pounds of this commercial Louisiana crawfish bowl. Tomorrow we will add it directly to the pot. a stick of butter for the salt element, we're going to add a killer pork thing and that's going to bring in a little bit of garlic, a little bit of pepper, of course, a little bit of salt, then we need a little bit of citrus flavor, there you go, one thing, Mississippi sand that will contribute a lot. of pepper and a lot of citrus to the bowl, so now I added a cup of plain white vinegar, this will help those tails peel, it will give a little spicy element to your

boil

, don't skip the vinegar because it really works now we're going to add the liquid, boil the same louisiana brand, if you have your favorite liquid or dry, use that, but this is what we like to use and it really brings that flavor, so we're going to add a cup of kosher salt.
how to boil crawfish
It's a bit of a rough measurement here, they don't have to be precise. This is the cooking mark of the crab. If you take out the old paddle, stir, so we will mix well and do exactly the same thing. to our soaking pot, bringing these seasonings up slowly will really help them incorporate into that water and wake up that flavor in that bowl. I'm going to go ahead and squeeze some fresh lemon juice and always throw the lemon in with it, just leave it. it will float, it will pick up the essence of the peel, the oil that is in the lemon, all that flavor, this will really make us good crabs, once these pots get to a bowl, you can see, I want to go ahead and turn off the burner because I I would like to bring them to a boil at least twice so that this pot goes out.
how to boil crawfish
We're just going to put the lid back on and let the crab water soak and while it's soaking, we're going to put these crabs in the crab wash. how we clean them, so to wash these crabs we will open the bag, we will throw them in this old wash tub which is the crab jacuzzi, you can see they give them a bit of a kick, but naturally the crabs are dirty, they come out of the swamp, They've been in that mud in the water, so we want to clean them up, so what we're going to do is we're going to turn on our water hose and it's going to start circulating, we're going to fill the tub and we're going to show you how it's going to start a swirl effect and it's going to clean these crabs as soon as it breaks over the edge, we will let it begin to drain the mud from the bottom.
Your grass and everything should float up, go over the edge and the mud will settle to the bottom and wash them well. our crab wash is doing its job. You can see the water is clearing. These crabs look good. Now see the dead. any grass you can pick up, oh, straight tails, you want to get them out of there, let's see if there's any life in it. It seems pretty direct to me. It's going back in the trash. We bring both pots to a boil and then turn off the gas now we're just going to let it sit for a little bit so those flavors can concentrate, we'll bring them back to a boil one more time and as soon as the crabs are clean we'll be ready to start cooking them.
I've ever heard of a cajun brand neti pot it's the best one out there this is this is going to get rid of any kind of sinus problems viruses whatever's going on crawfish boil I got it so we boiled this soap dish twice now it's the time to get it it got cold so basically we'll leave the lid off, stir it up and turn it down to about 160 degrees it'll take about 30 minutes all you have to do is keep an eye on it that way when the crabs are done. We'll bring them here, they won't be overcooked and they'll absorb all that flavor.
You're right where you want it to go down to 160. That's the right temperature for soaking the crabs, so after about 10 minutes you'll be able to see our crabs. They are circulating the water is clean we have lost all that dirt they are really clean what we are going to do now is kill that water and it will drain then we can pour the crabs into our basket They will be ready to cook, so now that the water is drained we will put them in in the cooking basket. It's time to give them a nice hot jacuzzi every now and then we'll be ready to put some lemons and garlic on top. in that water, okay, mark the pot is boiling, we're ready to drop his first bag of crabs, so we'll put a pan full of garlic in with it and then we'll be ready to drop it while he lowers it.
We're going to squeeze in a little more lemon, throw them in, go ahead, dial, we're going to bring them to a boil, it'll probably take about 10 minutes to get it back to a boil and then we'll time it for about three minutes. We're going to move on to our soaking pot at 160 degrees, put the lid on and then turn the burner back on once we start steam coming out of that lid, the pot comes back to a boil, that's where we want to start our timer. Three minutes let's go. They will be perfect for boiling, so once you start seeing these crabs floating you will know they are close to being ready.
We have about 45 more seconds and they will be ready to go on the soap dish. We will place the lid well. Again, three minutes of bowl time have passed since we started our timer. Now we're going to move the crabs into the soaking pot which is at 160 degrees and we're going to let them drain a little bit and then we're going to go to the soap dish so now we want them to soak for 20 minutes so I'm going to start another timer and if you don't have a soap dish, if you're just using a platform, you can drop about 10 pounds of ice in here. it will cool them down, it will surprise them, it will lower the water temperature, it will make those crabs absorb all that juice.
I really like the flavor you get from using two pots if you are cooking multiple bags this is the way. to dial in what temperament we're looking at sitting at 160. so we're going to keep stirring as you stir it, it's going to keep the water cold for a few minutes, you're going to start washing these crabs, they're all going to sink to the bottom, that's when you know they're getting happy. I'm going to hit the timer for 20 minutes and what that sinking crab is telling me is that all the juice in that pot is being absorbed into that head.
They are getting heavy. They are falling to the bottom. If you left them in the boiling pot without cooling them, they will all stay on top, you will end up with dry crabs and they will be overcooked. Now let's leave the lid open, those crabs are still screaming hot. This way we will maintain the temperature of the water in that way, we will not heat the water to more than 160ÂșC. We're about 10 minutes in and all these crabs have already sunk, there are some that are still hanging there, it won't be, but a few more minutes they'll be on the bottom and the rest will really absorb a lot of that juice, a lot of that flavor, then After 20 minutes we are still at almost 160 degrees in our soap dish and that is a long time. so these crabs will absorb that mark of flavor, now we're ready to throw them out, so we'll take them out again, pick them up slowly, oh what crabs are beautiful, let them drain for a few seconds and then relax them and have them throw out the cooler and Don't you dare put any more seasoning on them right now, you don't want to put that on the outside, it'll just burn your hands, it'll burn your lips, all that flavor is inside these crabs.
We're going to let them cook in this cooler while we cook the next bag and we'll show you how we cook the vegetables. We turned the burner back on almost ready to drop the next bag, so we cooked both bags of crab. the cooler it stays nice and warm, this is when you want to cook your vegetables. Now I'm starting my baby potatoes. These are these small potatoes that we are going to make first along with the mushrooms and onion. It's going to take them a little bit longer to boil we're going to need about 10 minutes for them, we're just going to slide them in real slow, you don't want to splatter everything, let them get in there, mark, what are you going to do?
We have two lemon halves, you want to squeeze them on top as well, just like we did with the crabs, leave them, stir them around a little bit and because I really love mushrooms, I always make extra mushrooms, add another big container of those and then we'll get the heat back up. , we're going to set a timer for 10 more minutes and then we're going to add our sausage five minutes into the corn, it's going to be time to eat, so after 10 minutes of Tate's been boiling, we're ready. To drop the smoked sausage, you can use your favorite type of smoked sausage, but this old red skin is hard to beat. circle b, mix it well, lift it up, let's let it boil for another five minutes.
Potatoes must be fork. tender turn it off drop the corn let it absorb all that good flavor it will be time to try these crabs so it's been five minutes let's drop the corn just be careful because it might splash on you, welcome then turn it over Turn off the heat, now it's the time to let the vegetables soak. I'm going to stir them up a little. I'll see the sausage start to open up a little bit. It really explodes. It has a lot of that good crab ball flavor. I'm getting the onions, the soft mushrooms, the cooked potatoes, I could mash them, that's what I want to see.
We need about five more minutes of soaking. Here you can leave it as long as you want, if you want the corn to be super hot, let it soak a little. Although I'll make it gentle, three to five minutes will be perfect, we'll take them out of here, we'll serve them, we'll spread the crabs out on the cutting board, me and Mark will show you how. To eat them well, the corn has been soaking for about five minutes, which is enough time to get all that flavor. We really just want to get a little bit of that crab that flavors all that juice, all those elements that we put in that boil inside the vegetables, so mark, we will serve them when I serve them for my friends and family, we always put them in the refrigerators, keep them fresh, use a spoon and scoop them out however you want if you want to throw them away. at the table let everyone gather if you want to use flats, that's cool too, mark, I'm going to throw in some of these corn chips, the mushrooms, all of that here with that spread out has to have that right that looks like a bowl of crab For me, I'm ready to go deeper, what do you think?
Come on, so the best way to eat a crayfish is to separate the tail, pinch it, get all that juice out of there, and then eat the tail. remove the first small segment, pinch it at the bottom and move on to the next 500. those are good, they are good, they have some spice, they are peeling, you can't beat that flavor it's full of. juice how much juice is in one do you think every little bit let's see here show you that we have a little bit of juice look that's what I know I wasted that one that's good although I have a lot more to eat that's good crayfish perfect bite crayfish tell me oh , I won't try that mushroom but it will set me on fire I'm going to talk about the sausage market mmm spicy dragon good good good crab man that's a summary of how to cook crabs how to barbecue the right way I want to thank mark for coming to cook this with me check out his swine life bbq channel on youtube he does a lot of amazing things it's not just about bbq all the time I appreciate it mark thank you sir I enjoyed it it was a good time yes Everyone likes what we are doing check us out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and I'll do that podcast on Fridays.
See you next time, damn hurricanes. Phew, one last little mushroom, let me grab it, mark it, let me take it. He nowhere, dropped it, it's hot. Cut that some heat.

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