Crawfish boil prepration "purging"
 

Ok folks figured I would share an experience I had with "purging" crawfish. I got the idea from a restaurant and have proven it works. So here you go... After purchasing your crawfish place them in a large tank. I used a kiddy pool from walmart the hard plastic kind. Naturally the more crawfish the bigger/more pool/tanks you need. Anyway, dump 2-3 sx in pool depending on size of pool and drill a few 1/2 inch holes around the top of pool w paddle bit or whatever. Fill pool up with water and run your water at a gallon every 6 mins if using tap water so not so expensive. Take your hose and time that bc it is fairly cruicial. Allow this to run 24 hours prior to boiling and its a guarantee that there will be no crap in vein and the fat will be bright yellow. Also I have a 3 acre pond at home so I stick a old bildge pump in my pond and pump into tank/pool and let it drain back to pond at a good rate. After 6 hours in pool the crawfish begin crapping and by 24 hours they will be done and flushed clean. Saltwater purging does not work. Yea it sounds like a lot of trouble but its really not. You purge your entire boil at one time.

I'll keep that in mind when I have an extra 24 hours to boil a sack of crawfish.

If you do you will always make extra time when having a boil. The next time I go this route I am going to do a test, I will run some at 12 hours and some at 24 to see the difference.

WHY???????????????????????????????????

I like your technique and now it is agreed upon by a recent scientific study that salt water purging does not work. I am rather skeptical about all of the fat being yellow after your method of purging, but I'm no crawfish scientist.

Anyway you can keep the crawfish alive for about 48 hours will work just like all living things, they will eventually have to poop. That sounds like a lot of work for a little poop that will boiled with a ton of seasoning.

Well it was for me... And just overall cleaner. And WHY???????????? Bc I do not enjoy eating a bunch of crawfish ****. I figured out an easy way to prevent it so that's how I do it. If you like the gritty **** then don't take the advice. That is "WHY"!!!!

Not much work at all you do the same amount of work by putting in ice chest and rinsing a sack at a time. This way you do 1-2-3 sacks at a time and walk away from it for a day. The running of water through the tank cleans the crawfish completely. In a pond for instance the water is not moving unless rain or a well but for the most part its stagnant. Also there is not an available food source and crawfish completely digest food intake in 16-18 hours. If its to much trouble then don't do it. As for me I have a good amount of time on my hands so I do it the right way. And no crawfish will not poop like that in 48 hours with out water. They are like a human and need food/water to survive. So when there is a food shortage they take in water which cleanses just like a human.

And it just so happens one of the best restaurants that serve crawfish in SWLA does this the same exact way. Their set up is on a much larger scale as a small pool but they promise no **** in veins and the fat is consistently yellow and much cleaner all around crawfish. So I did it myself with same results and thought I would share the info.

You just have to watch out. Chlorinated tap water will kill crawfish if you leave them in untreated water for too long.

Just cause I'm curious. What is the best restaurant in SWLA that serves crawfish?


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Just eat them!!! Or pull the yellow off if you don't like it!!! Your no cool a.....!! A good salt bath and reince is all you need!!

I'll take a guess and say Hawk's, since you can see the purging tanks as you go in.

bmac is correct... I use pond water at my house there is a 3 acre pond and I just re-circulate. But tap water should not be an issue depending on levels of chlorine, if high yea it may be a problem. Hawks has the best I have ever eaten and it aint close for 2nd.

Thats a great idea, thanks for sharing.

Clean crawfish is better then the s**t grit crawfish fo sho.

I agree that hawks is very good but Cajun Claws in Abbeville is better.

Cajun Claws is the best I think

I would think if your using tap water. There would not be much oxygen in the water. Most people just take the **** vein out when they eat them. LOL

Adding salt has been proven NOT to do anything other than waste salt.

I have a plan.

Day 1. Got to Wal-Mart and buy a small pool, drill some holes in it 3 inches from the top. Run a suction line from my front ditch (clear non chlorinated water) to the pool, attach a pump to it and a return line from the pool back to the ditch. Dump a sack or two or three of crawfish into the pool. Wait 24 hours

Day 2. Retrieve crawfish from pool and boil Crawfish, peel crawfish and take out poo vein eat.


Did I get it right?



Alternate plan.


Rinse crawfish with tap water, pick out the grass, pieces of bait, dead ones. Boil Crawfish, peel crawfish and take out poo vein eat.

Swamp. I think I'll keep using your plan B. loL

nah Swamp you got it all wrong. You do not remove the poop vein if done correctly. This set up takes me literally 5 minutes to do. Take pool out of shed and place on ground near my pond (2 minutes) and dump crawfish, Put a few bricks in 1 foot of water in my pond to prevent sucking up grass/mud 1 minute, place bilge pump on top bricks with 6 foot hose going to pool (1 minute), hook old charged battery to bilge/live well pump and turn on (1 minute) and done. Battery last a good 24 hours if not I put another. Bilge/livewell pump shuts on and off every 10 minutes. Walk away for 2 hours and let it to do its thing while you live life doing what you do. Yea this may be hard for some but it is a fairly simple setup for me and the next day everyone including the females ask how come there is no poop in veins. I simply tell them I purged the crawfish. Seriously if it seems to difficult I would not try as you may hurt yourself.

If you leave 2-3 sacks of crawfish in a pool with holes drilled in the top how do you not lose half your crawfish?


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the hard plastic ones they cannot climb. drill a few 1/2 inch holes a few inches from top around the edge. if they can get out the 1/2 hole they to small to eat anyway right? and if the pool is to small for 3 sx just put a cover on top pool. Maybe a piece of plywood or turn a round table upside down and lay on top. Never had the issue of any getting out pool though.

who the hell would go through all that to boil crawfish? that is what i am trying to figure out.

http://www.thetoolworkshop.com/genfo...db-gv242d.aspx

that's the pool... go through what? dump crawfish let water run for a day and boil. Damn its not an act of Congress to do. If you enjoy eating good clean crawfish I was just trying to help some people out. If you see this as work and to hard to do then you probably applied for Obamacare a few days ago on the last day. I like eating a clean crawfish and some people must like the crap in the vein, I don't. With the recent study showing that salt does not clean out a crawfish I figured I would attempt to help some people that like clean crawfish out and give a tip. No worries it will not happen again as it seems there is people here trying to figure out any way possible for something not to work that truly works.

Thanks for the tip

I ain't saying it won't work.
Not everyone has an extra bilge pump, battery and pong laying around.

I get drunk just trying to boil a few sacks without cleaning them! Lol!

Just pour them in a tub, change water out a few times, then cook them.. Of course while drinking beer the whole time. By the time they are cooked who cares. LOL

A lot of people ragging on you, but it's probably a good concept...just on a smaller scale. Maybe like a #3 washtub with a drain plug changing the water out a few times a day like someone said. This idea may have merit yet! ;) I may get a patent and make millions!

People may take ur concept and run with it...others...well it's not their bag
You've got a right to prepare your table fare in whatever way you see fit.

I've seen a couple large purging tanks that were set up with a large air pump. It worked very well to clean out the vein in 24 hrs. The advantages were no grit in the veins and the crawfish survived twice as long in a cooler.

This is what I do now, dump them in a number 3 tub as soon as I get home and put some water on them. Change it till it runs clear.

Is that method purging them? And how many times do you change water?

I'm more concerned with washing the mud and feed off of them than I am purging them. I change the water 2 or 3 times and it normally gets clear.

thats just too much trouble. my bil has a big crawfish/seafood operation out of mobile any he doesnt go through that much trouble. He has a large tube that soaks it a little then goes through a conveyour that rinses them off and sorts out the dead ones.

Pour them into a champagne and soak in a larger tub, you can agitate (W them) to get mud off. Large purge tanks are designed to hold enough graded crawfish so to be commercially marketable;Hawks or Texas processors cause they don't catch enough at one time to have enough to sell.