Great Lakes Crayfish

[Goodweed of the North]

Anybody know if the fresh-water crayfish found in Lake Superior are edible? We always caught them and used for bait as I was growing up.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

[buckytom]

i've heard you can flambe' them without using alcohol...

[cafeandy]

what the heck is a cray-fish...just kidding. we call 'em crawdads [or crawfish in town]. they are good to eat [excellent, in fact].

i've never been to lake superior but it can't be any more polluted than the bayous of louisiana or the inland waters of china [where most commercial, as in frozen, crawfish are raised].

eat hardy.

[ronjohn55]

Lake Superior is probably the cleanest (It's definitely the coldest and clearest) of the Great Lakes.

The crayfish should be fine to eat (With the nice cold water, the meat should probably actually have a very nice texture to it). The thing is, all the smallmouth, pike and walleye fisherman will be looking at you funny if you catch them and don't stick 'em on a hook and throw out a few lines to catch some fish.

John

[buckytom]

oops, i think i was thinking of lake erie. is that the lake that caught fire?

crawfish are great. the next time i go to one of my fav restaurants, i'll ask the owners/chefs, who make a nice habit of coming around to the tables to talk with the customers, for the recipe for a dish called pasta le'ruth's. it's crawfish tails in a spicy pink cream sauce, mixed with pasta. kind of like pink and spicy crawfish alfredo.

[AllenOK]

Hey bucky, make a basic crawfish Fett. Alf., but add some blackened seasoning at the start. That will turn it a pinkish shade, as well as add some heat.

[kitchenelf]

Hey, I used to live on Lake Erie!!!! (boy did it stink!)

But it's not so bad now.

[buckytom]

thanks allen. i'm not a fan of creamy/pasta dishes, but that's one i love. i've thought about spicing and grilling the crawfish first, then tossing them in a cream sauce, but what the restaurant offers is a somewhat delicate sauce, not really grilled. i'm not sure tho, but you may be on to something. but i will ask the owners for the recipe. fortunately, they are very nice guys and have most of their recipes printed up for customers requests, it happens so often. one of the nice touches that keeps me coming back.

[ronjohn55]

Originally Posted by buckytom

oops, i think i was thinking of lake erie. is that the lake that caught fire?

That and the Rouge River.....

(And don't even ask about Zug Island...)

John

[Goodweed of the North]

Thanks, everyone. I'll just have to catch a few, and try them out. Might be something we've all been missing around here. After all, we have great fishing and don't have to eat some of the lesser fish other people in the world have available, like Missippi River Catfish, or Carp. I here that in parts of Europe, they eat lamprey eels. We destroy them on site around these parts. And we certainly don't much 'em. But I'm going to have to try the crawdads.

Seeeeya; Goodweed of the North