smoking crawdads

[ditchen]

Should you start out with a little pot, and boil them first?

Then smoke em?


What kind of wood to use?

[jeff]

Couldn't you just ask about how to steam them?

Any southern boys on here?

[bstansbu]

never had them smoked before sorry cant help ya there. But my relatives from La boil them for the best flavor.

Must be live Crawfish to start, dead ones are worthless.

Very large pot of boiling water. We use 5 gallon pots like a turkey fryer kit and cook them outside in the back yard. You have to have Zatarans Crawfish/Crab/Shrimp boil mix. If you dont know anyone from La that can send you some, you might could order it online. its a must have for this. Into the boiling mixture goes 1 bag of red potatoes or new potatoes skin on, 9 entire garlic cloves, 12 corn on* the cob cut into halves, and 4 lemons cut into 3rds. Boil for about 15 minutes then throw in your crawfish and boil about 3 min per pound I think. Cant remebr for sure, maybe a southern boy could step in on this one. Once the crawfish are very deep red color, remove from fire and dump in a bag of ice to the boiling water, this will stop the cooking process and is very neccesarry if you dont want over cooked seafood. Put a bunch of newspapers on the table . drain water then dump the entire pot in the center of the table. Dig in- ben

[nperkins]

man.. I need to do a Crawdad bake one of these days...

[updragracer]

I tried to smoke one but it would not light :confused:

[jeff]

suck harder while holding a flame on its tail.

[Jason333]

Originally Posted by bstansbu

never had them smoked before sorry cant help ya there. But my relatives from La boil them for the best flavor.

Must be live Crawfish to start, dead ones are worthless.

Very large pot of boiling water. We use 5 gallon pots like a turkey fryer kit and cook them outside in the back yard. You have to have Zatarans Crawfish/Crab/Shrimp boil mix. If you dont know anyone from La that can send you some, you might could order it online. its a must have for this. Into the boiling mixture goes 1 bag of red potatoes or new potatoes skin on, 9 entire garlic cloves, 12 corn on the cob cut into halves, and 4 lemons cut into 3rds. Boil for about 15 minutes then throw in your crawfish and boil about 3 min per pound I think. Cant remebr for sure, maybe a southern boy could step in on this one. Once the crawfish are very deep red color, remove from fire and dump in a bag of ice to the boiling water, this will stop the cooking process and is very neccesarry if you dont want over cooked seafood. Put a bunch of newspapers on the table . drain water then dump the entire pot in the center of the table. Dig in- ben

I don't think smoked would come out well, but ive never tried them. I think they would be extremely dry.
This is more or less what you do. I always add 4 sticks of butter to help them peel a lot better, and it adds a good bit of flavor (i have compared back to back sacks, and it's night and day to me). We use a 100 quart pot, burner, and a boat paddle for equipment. Bring the pot to a boil with the seasoning mix (as stated in the quote). Drop the crawfish into the boil. When they come to a boil (look for steam to start rolling out of the pot) Boil them for 5 minutes, then taste them every 30 seconds to see how they peel and make sure they are completely cooked. Once they peel well and the meat is cooked, poor in 2 bags of ice so they no longer cook. Soak for around 12-15 minutes for spice to soak in. Make sure you check the spice every 45 seconds to a minute after 5-6 minutes as it can burn you up if it goes just slightly longer than you want. One thing that is really good to add is Cajun sausage (Mandas or Savoi's), and mushrooms. We usually put the other veggies in right when we start the heat up as they take longer, and the sausage and mushrooms when you drop the crawfish. Hope this helped! (and only a year later :))

[jeff]

Welcome to the forum Jason!

[Jason333]

Originally Posted by jeff

Welcome to the forum Jason!

Thanks Jeff :)