How To Properly Crack Open And Eat Crawfish

The saying goes that "good things come to those who wait," but we think that even better things come to those who have the gumption to crack open a crawfish. Plus, dipping your claws into a crawfish boil isn't as hard as it may seem. After just a few cracks and snaps, the treasure is yours.

First, grab the crawfish with both hands and face it sideways. For the first and perhaps most gruesome part, detach the head from the rest of the body by bending and snapping it or by twisting it off. The head houses juices that have a delicious flavor, so suck out its contents (okay, maybe this is more gruesome) or save it to suck it later when the rest of the meat is released. To get to the meat in the body, remove the top three layers of shell. Then, grab the end of its tail and bend the crawfish against its curl. Now, the loosened meat can be sucked directly from the shell.

The sure-fire way to prepare crawfish is in a backyard crawfish boil. But, like most seafood, its mild taste makes it malleable to various flavors and ways of preparing. There are more uses for Old Bay Seasoning than just shrimp. Old Bay is similar to the Cajun seasoning that is commonly used in a crawfish boil, so spicing up crawfish with Old Bay both pulls from crawfish boil tradition and slightly alters it with a different yet familiar taste. Combining the shellfish cousins, simmer up a crawfish and shrimp boil, spiced with either Old Bay or Cajun seasoning.

There are other ways to prepare crawfish that don't require such a hands-on approach, though. A crawfish and grits dish avoids the crawfish-cracking process altogether. Using already-prepared crawfish tails, this dish is a twist on the classic Louisiana-style shrimp and grits. But crawfish and grits has a milder flavor and the switch to crawfish invites a more tender texture. Following Louisiana custom, a crawfish etouffee also presents them in a new and exciting way, incorporating it into a traditionally shrimp-based dish.