Cleaning the Crayfish. Since we are not going to do a true southern boil yet I have been purging, boiling, deveining, washing and then freezing the tails for use later. This is how we do it.
I would skim off the the cooking water and save it. After you clean out the tail meat put the heads back into the cooking water and boil it to make some great stock.
A suggestion, if you freeze them for over a month or so, it is best to put them into water and freeze them completely surrounded by the ice. By doing this, they will not get freezer burnt in any way. Oxygen causes freezer burn and bad taste. My dad used to take half gallon card board kind from years ago and put bass or crappie fillets in them filled with water completely and freeze them. When they are completely surrounded by ice with no oxygen in touch with the meat, they can remain frozen for quite a long period of time with no nasty flavors or smells or freezer burn what soever. Thanks for the video, my mouth is watering as I'm typing, lol. Cheers
My last trip to Strawberry Reservoir in Utah was all I could eat crawfish for three days plus I froze 26 1-lb bags of clean, cooked tail meat and brought it home for the winter. It lasted my family six months and we cooked with crawfish twice a week. Jambalaya, ettoufee, filet gumbo, crawfish pie, fried crawfish. And I was no where near Louisiana! You can too! 10 traps=150 pounds/day. More traps=more crawfish. Check local limit laws first.
You both sitting there doing that reminds me what I would do with my sisters and mum, we had a small garden and grew fresh peas and it was my job to shel them and we might be doing this all afternoon. Great times.
You can't store them in water because they use all of the oxygen, then it can't diffuse into the water fast enough from the atmosphere. It's the reason why you need a filter that splashes water back into the fish tank. The splash creates bubbles under water that allows more oxygen to diffuse into the water.
Great video bud, me and my brother are new to this and this was very helpful. We live in upstate NY where they are tough to catch and slightly small, but we found the honey hole. We can catch about 150 in 45 mins.
great video, I loved it..Here in Australia, we call the vein their shit line. We really are a bunch of rough nuts down here. LOL You have inspired me to go yabbying as soon as the weather warms back up. Thank you.
In Louisiana we just reach and grab the biggest one with curled tail, twist the tail off, pinch the tail end to sever the attachment, eat whatever comes out the tail shell.
Hey Joe .... love the Crawfish video's....it's informative to see the whole process.....you should take some of that meat and some bellpeppers,onion,seasoning and flour and make fritters and fry them in hot oil.....you could also save the water you boil them in and reduce it and make some crawfish stock and cook w/ it....just another way to use way mother nature provides...Greetings from NC
I havnt yet, I even bought some half pint jars to can some but ended up getting into trying to do the boils this year, you can see the videos in the crayfishing playlist. I will try canning them eventually, not sure on dehydrating yet. Thank you.Joe
great video, thank you for sharing this with us. I have a small suggestion: when cleaning them put it on a table or your lap so that you're not leaning over the whole time. This should make it much more comfortable and less tedious.
Great video's, I've learned a lot, I just made my first trap last night by watching your video. Great info, going to put it in the river this weekend, can't wait!
I was at a party once, and one of the ladies made crawfish pistolettes. They were delicious. You should google the recipe. Love your videos and your interaction with your kids. All of you are very lucky to have each other.
Clarence Vande Voort yeah. Before cooking though it's like cleaning rock lobsters just on a smaller scale. the center of the five tail flaps, twist it left and right until it cracks loose and pull it gently and the whole intestine will come out connected to that flap intact. If it doesn't work right though then you really can't cook it with the ones it did work on because it be like playing Russian Roulette and have to check each tail anyways. People do just eat them though so there's that option. :D
A nutcracker and an oyster fork are handy tools to recover claw meat; gently crack the claw transversely, and use the oyster fork to pull the meat out of the shell. Granted, it's easier with the large Mississippi River "crawdads" that are taken in catfish traps from Red Wing to St. Louis, and look like lobster chix (because all the little ones turn right around and exit or slip through the slots), but it also works for little ones like those in the video. Also note when you are removing the tail meat from the shell after you crack it, that if you grasp the uropod firmly, and pull straight off the tail, about half the time, the "vein" will come with it, so that you don't need an extra de-veining step. This seems to work best when the crayfish have been purged overnight in cool/cold flowing (or aerated) water, which is a good way to assure their alimentary canals have been cleared. It's heat or lack of sufficient oxygen in the storage water, not submersion, that can kill 'em.
Here in SE Texas we call them crawfish. And we put our Cron a potatoes in first and let them Boil for a few minutes before we put our crawfish in with our mushrooms, sausage links. We also put apples, limes, lemons , oranges, garlic cloves, onions, in with our Crawfish Boil seasoning. And bring it to a boil before you put anything else in. And try putting a bag of ice in the pot after the crawfish get done. It helps to put more seasoning in the crawfish.
Absolutely love your videos, definitely subscribing to your channel. Thanks so much, well, time to go mudbuggin for my wife. Thanks for the info...you rock!
Thank you Artie. There will be more Backwoods Cabin and Tent videos coming in the near future. Last Friday was the first day that enough snow was gone so you could drive in this year. Thanks again. Joe
I've just caught my first crayfish using a trap I bought a little over a week ago. It's still pretty cold outside, so I wasn't expecting much action. Anyway, the parasites visible on the outside of the carapace concerned me. I did some research and couldn't find out much, but apparently people who have pet crays sometimes see this problem and cure it with a salt rub. Tried it on my guy like you said and did indeed notice a whole host of dead parasites floating on the surface. Thanks!
Many years ago an old timer told me he purged the mudbugs in milk.Claimed it gave em gas and the shits and cleaned em out real good.Also said it sweetened the meat.Don't know how long to keep them in there,though.Has anybody else heard this one?Nice VID by the way.
If you wanted to leave them in ice water overnight, all you need is an aerator to drop in the bucket/cooler, I usually go ahead and purge them overnight. They breathe underwater as well as above, as long as there is sufficient oxygen, too many in one bucket will suck out all the oxygen. Good videos, I'm semi-new to crawdading as well and was looking for new ideas. Thanks again!
What a great bar! A designated driver is a necessity! Thanks for the video, I'll put dem bugs back on de menu. Your method caused a serious, and visible reaction/evac.
Thanks for the info John, I'll find out where our local office is here in Oxfordshire. Not to worry about illegal trapping, I won't do that. It sure is going to be a bummer summer if I can't go crayfishing though, last summer we got plenty, and you're right, they are tasty! :) Cheers!
I delivered freight in the New Orleans area and was happy to see they had crayfish available in many different ways. I had a crayfish salad sandwich which is basically chicken salad with different meat. It was good.
You are amazing! I have done your crayfish traps and i catch +-20 crayfish today!thanks for your amazing videos.if you want to come to europe(more precisely to Portugal) you are more than welcome.Thanks
next time you are out in the woods camping take twwo/three eggs,onion, bell pepper, salt pepper, cayenne and half cup of crawdad meat and throw it in a ziploc bag shake it real good then boil the bag for about twelve minutes...best fireside omelette in the world! love the vids guy, dont worry about the haters, they are always gonna be there. enjoy those that enjoy you and thats all you can do.
As long as they have wet gills they can breathe through them. If you leave them in water they breathe the water in and out and deplete the oxygen. Crabs are the same way. Either use a tank with constant water flow or leave them wet but not in water.
Hi Joe, thanks for the great video and the very cool purging tips!!! Just a quick question- if you wanted to eat them straight away, how long would you boil them for? cheers. R.M.
Tip: I hose live 'dads in clean water just to get rid of pond mud. Next: Pull the tail of the live 'dad straight, The push the tail right until a click, then left until a click, then pull the tail straight out. This will get the "mud vein" out of 90% out before boiling. (segregate the ones that need hand veined). Boil then hold at the first tails section and thumbnail of the shell. This whole process is 5 seconds! Eat or freeze. The 10% take the extra deveining but are worth it. 28Bull
are these Crayfish.from salt or fresh water? here in Canada I been boiling them for many years, but they never turn red like that. the color don't change much from what the start off as, they are good though
Hi again joe forgot to mention ur trap is bigger than what I built buy a pack of hotdog for 99cents a pack of 6 and pack them all in there hope u give it a try and let me know the outcome k. Ty joe for the wonderfull videos keep it up.
I didn't get to read all 305 comments so I don't know if anyone answered this for you. You were wondering why not to put them in water. Both Mudbugs and crabs breath through gills. As long as the gills remain moist they can get oxygen directly from the air (many types of crabs and mud bugs crawl out on land). However if you put them in water they will quickly deplete the oxygen from the water will die due to lack of oxygen. Putting ice packs in the cooler chills them down which quiets them down because of the cold (cold blooded). Don't use ice though as it will melt and cover the lower ones with water and they will use up all the oxygen in that water and die. I used to catch crawfish at night with long handled tongs and a head lamp. Their eyes would reflect the light similar to deer and you could easily see them and grab them. Thanks for the posts
I used to work at a fish farm, and it was the best kind or country job out in the fresh air wet or dry cutting river bands and cleaning huge 40 Metre ponds out ready for new fish which we got from Japan. Smelly yes but that is just one day. I want to tell you about the water and ice pack thing. Leaving them or any fish in a tiny amount of water, and by that I mean a bucket size, allows the water to heat up way higher than the temperature they live in and so in effect it slowly cooks them.
Never knew how you cleaned them, so this really helps me a lot. Think I'm going to try and get some traps made the next couple of weeks and try my hand at Mudbuggin'. Thanks so much for your videos there guys. Just Subbed your channel, and started to watch some more of these great videos that you guys put together. Thanks for the info, and BTW....wonder if the bar can get cited for DUI ? LOL :>)
Great video guys, There's a ban on catching them at the moment here in most of the UK! Sucks. Because our native crayfish and water voles are here and protected. Hope it gets lifted soon i love these little suckers with some homemade garlic mayo.
Thanks for the video's !!. Just a observation. It seems to be a LOT of work for such little gain. I mean do you have to strip them? Can you just boil then take the tails and freeze? I remember catching crayfish (crawdads where im from) back when i was a kid. Never did eat any though.
OK if you really want to purge them his way is wrong you need to set up a holding tanking and run fresh water through. this will give them nothing to eat and clean out there system. I have been raising them for 7 years now and that is the method that works
In new Zealand (Where i am) we have huge crayfish (compared to those crayfish) and i found that in the body (atleast for the new Zealand version) there is quite a bit of meat. Buy in this little crayfish it might be hard to get the meat. To put it into perspective 1 nz crayfish tail would be all 43 of those tails
Joe, I love all of your video's, whether crawfishing, fishing, or the backwood's/cabin/tent video's. Do you have anymore video's of you using the alaskan chainsaw mill?
Chad Hickey I will have more of them coming up Chad. with work being very busy right before the winter slow down and all the hunting seasons here now I have not had time to cut any more boards but I will be soon. Thank you. Joe
On the east coast they catch blue crab and keep them in a special wooden woven baskets with lids. They keep them graded by size in a cooler until needed. Cool and moist gills is all that’s needed. Some areas have crayfish that actually leave the water and migrate across the land. I’ve seen video of people stopping their cars and collecting them into burlap sacks.
Hiya John, I was just going to get my trap out of the garage and hit the River Thame, pray tell, do you know where I can find info on the ban? That's a bummer, I love going crayfishing. :(
Looks like the sort of thing you could do while watching the birds in the garden, same way I used to split peas, not realising just how many I had done.
I catch a lot of crawfish and I can give you a couple GREAT pointers. First, always do the big crawfish boil with 10 gals water in a pot w a basket in it. CABELLA'S has them. 2 full cans of Morton salt, 3 cans Old Bay Seasoning, 6 lemons quartered, 2 lbs smoked sausage cut in 4 inch lengths, 4 ears of corn cut in half, red potatoes optional. Bring water and spices/salt to a rolling boil, dunk basket full of other stuff into water, cook till crawfish turns red and a few start to float.
Living in Louisiana we would purge a cooler that size and least three more times , after each purge drain all the water out and start over from ur first stage . One time is not enuff to get them all to clean out .. enjoy , I could eat 7-8 I lbs by my self if it were just the mud bugs. Now add the tatoes and corn and then I could maybe do 4 lbs . :-) happy eating
Thank you. I am not sure if you watched any of my "Mudbuggin 2014" videos yet but I was down in Louisiana at my girlfriends house for 3 months this last winter. I crawfished just east or Sorrento/Gonzalas off Airline and had a great time. We buy Crawfish at Reno and Hope Seafood on Hwy 22. Great Crawfish. Thats what they say down there, the average person will eat 5 pounds of crawfish and a true Cajun can do 7 or 8 pounds. Melissa my girlfriend says " If you dont have juice running down your arms and dripping off your elbows yall aint doin it right" LOL. I truly love Louisiana, I have spent the last 2 winters there and am looking forward to being there next winter. Caught many Redfish on Lake Pontchartrain. I miss the Satrurday noon Jamabalaya they have at R&B on the corner of 22 and 61. 5 bucks and you are FULL when your done eating lol. Thank you again for the comment.
One of my favorite ways to cook crawdads. Dispatch as humanely as possible. Twist off the tails, shell them, vein them and run a green stick through them, like you would a marshmallow. Up to a dozen, roast them over a campfire and enjoy!
what kind of crawlfish can you use, does it matter if they are soft shell crawlfish. I live in Kentucky and I have places where I can get crawlfish that we use for fishing but it would be nice to have them to eat too.
Great video. I never ate crawfish before and have been nervous to try them. I have a trip to new Orleans soon, Im feelin a lot more confident to try them as I was unsure how to get the meat out.
+kaarl m I live in northern Anoka in Minnesota. That is where this video was taken. I also spend time in the winter down in Louisiana and I catch them there as well. Thank you. Joe
I know that's right :) Back during Catrina every said "I ain't seen a single Cajun on TV" And I said, "That is because they just thought it rained " :)
hey ,don't eat them raw.there is a parasite that sometimes lives in them that can make you very sick,or even kill you .it ends up in your lungs.i would boil them for atleast 5 mins.I live down here in la. near Sorrento la.
