How to remove raw crawfish tail meat?

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texherp

Senior Cook
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Messages
112
Location
Nacogdoches, TX
I have been trying out crawfish trapping lately and am starting to have some success. I have never caught enough crawfish at once to make a meal so I'd like to freeze the tail meat and build up a stock of it in the freezer for cooking later. I have never bought one of those packs of frozen tail meat in the grocery store so I don't know if they are pre-cooked or raw. My question is, do I remove the tail meat raw or cooked, and if raw, do I need to do anything different? Thanks!
 
I've never seen frozen raw tails on the net. They are always cooked w/the fat included in the bag.

If it were me, I'd cook then clean. Don't store whole crawfish, just what I've read, and often.

How many are you get'n/day? Sounds like fun.
 
OK, I figured you had to cook 'em first to get the meat out.

This morning I got about 2 dozen between two traps. My traps are homemade and small, so I only leave them out a night at a time. I have been setting them out in all sorts of places and it seems I can get the most from the little tupelo swamps around here, even though the crawfish are smaller than what I've gotten in the bigger ponds.
 
You cook them just like you do shrimp - steam them for about 3 minutes (very hot steam!), pull off the tail, cut an abdominal slit along the tail with a small pair of scissors and pull out the tail meat. Steaming for more than 3 minutes will make them tough (bad eats).

Gently reheat when serving later. Don't steam to reheat. Reheat in a basket over hot but not boiling or even simmering water. And don't put them in water... you'll lose most of their flavor.
 
Not how I'd cook'em. I'd save 2 days worth and boil w/garlic, lemon, zatarans, onion, etc. My problem would be eat'n them all and not save'n any.:pig: I vote to boil them how they are supposed to be boiled. Save what you and your family can't eat.

Just my $.02, keep the change.
 
I cooked 'em up yesterday. I think from now on I will keep them for a few days in the fridge to purge themselves because their little guts were full of grit.

I've always boiled them for 3 minutes and let them sit for 10 minutes. The meat usually comes out without having to tear apart the shell which is nice because I hate it when I get shell in my food.
 
There were instructions on some of those sites as to how to purge them of their grit.
 
I actually think the salt trick works. I've done them only 3 times, but the one time I used salt to purge. They were actually cleaner. Fluke? I don't know, but you do run the risk of kill'n more than normal. Worth buy'n a couple bags to find out, eh?:D I'll help w/the "experiment".:LOL:
 
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