03-13-2003, 09:46 PM
[cool]Been eatin' mudbugs fer a whole lotta years. There's a couple of different approaches...cooking them whole, or precleaning them.
If you gotta kill 'em before transporting them, you might as well clean them and ice them before taking them home. 1. Twist off the tails and the claws (on the larger ones). 2. Put them in a plastic bag or sealable container you can keep on ice. (don't soak out the flavor in ice water) 3. Cook and eat.
There's one other thing you can do while the tails are still uncooked, and that is "deveining". When you twist the tail away from the main body, you will notice a dark "vein" hanging out the end of the tail section. Just as with shrimp, removing that "vein" (excretory canal) will improve both the flavor and the esthetics of your crawdad experience. To do this, hold the segmented tail section in one hand, and twist the flipper portion with the other hand. When the flippers are twisted off the tail, the "vein" comes with it. The remaining part of the tail contains most of the edible meat on the 'dads. Steam them, fry them, boil them or whatever. Do not overcook. Just like shrimp, they are better when just cooked to opaque white. You can use a nutcracker, if you are a wimp. If you have strong fingers, just crack them like peanuts and pick out the meat. I like to do up a bunch and then either dump the cooked and cleaned meat pieces in melted garlic butter or sprinkle them (cold) into a salad.
If you wanna do the real Cajun thang, go to the seasoning department of the market and get some Zatarain Crab Boil. These are sacks of combined spices that you just toss in the pot with crabs or crawdads, along with a little vinegar. It cooks in a great spicy flavor. Get the water boiling, put the bag in to flavor up the water for a few minutes and then dump in the whole 'dads. When they turn red, and you can twist off the tails easily, they are ready to serve. A real Loozianna crawdad boil figures on about 2# of the crustaceans per diner. Depending on size, that will be anywhere from 15 to 25 'dads.
I think that 2# figure is averaging in women and children. That does not ever count me, or my kind. We mess up the calculations. Heck, I can polish off a couple of pounds of the cleaned meat myself.
I used to dive for some huge good-tasting 'dads in the American River, in Sacramento, just after the shad run. When the big shad died off, they would settle to the bottom of deep holes, where the crawdads would cluster by the thousands. A pair of gloves, a wire mesh fish basket and a deep breath would bag me ten to twenty bugs a dive. I brought home large ice chests full of only the biggest specimens. Some of the claws were bigger than my big fat thumb. Took awhile to preclean them, but when I cooked up whole canning kettles full of tails and claws, my kids and I didn't leave much evidence. What a great excuse to eat butter and garlic.
By the way, for the southern Utah boys, I hear tell that some of the biggest crawdaddies in the U.S. live in Gunlock.
[signature]
If you gotta kill 'em before transporting them, you might as well clean them and ice them before taking them home. 1. Twist off the tails and the claws (on the larger ones). 2. Put them in a plastic bag or sealable container you can keep on ice. (don't soak out the flavor in ice water) 3. Cook and eat.
There's one other thing you can do while the tails are still uncooked, and that is "deveining". When you twist the tail away from the main body, you will notice a dark "vein" hanging out the end of the tail section. Just as with shrimp, removing that "vein" (excretory canal) will improve both the flavor and the esthetics of your crawdad experience. To do this, hold the segmented tail section in one hand, and twist the flipper portion with the other hand. When the flippers are twisted off the tail, the "vein" comes with it. The remaining part of the tail contains most of the edible meat on the 'dads. Steam them, fry them, boil them or whatever. Do not overcook. Just like shrimp, they are better when just cooked to opaque white. You can use a nutcracker, if you are a wimp. If you have strong fingers, just crack them like peanuts and pick out the meat. I like to do up a bunch and then either dump the cooked and cleaned meat pieces in melted garlic butter or sprinkle them (cold) into a salad.
If you wanna do the real Cajun thang, go to the seasoning department of the market and get some Zatarain Crab Boil. These are sacks of combined spices that you just toss in the pot with crabs or crawdads, along with a little vinegar. It cooks in a great spicy flavor. Get the water boiling, put the bag in to flavor up the water for a few minutes and then dump in the whole 'dads. When they turn red, and you can twist off the tails easily, they are ready to serve. A real Loozianna crawdad boil figures on about 2# of the crustaceans per diner. Depending on size, that will be anywhere from 15 to 25 'dads.
I think that 2# figure is averaging in women and children. That does not ever count me, or my kind. We mess up the calculations. Heck, I can polish off a couple of pounds of the cleaned meat myself.
I used to dive for some huge good-tasting 'dads in the American River, in Sacramento, just after the shad run. When the big shad died off, they would settle to the bottom of deep holes, where the crawdads would cluster by the thousands. A pair of gloves, a wire mesh fish basket and a deep breath would bag me ten to twenty bugs a dive. I brought home large ice chests full of only the biggest specimens. Some of the claws were bigger than my big fat thumb. Took awhile to preclean them, but when I cooked up whole canning kettles full of tails and claws, my kids and I didn't leave much evidence. What a great excuse to eat butter and garlic.
By the way, for the southern Utah boys, I hear tell that some of the biggest crawdaddies in the U.S. live in Gunlock.
[signature]