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I drove through Camp Verde today and noticed a sign for the Crawfish festival. everytime I go to Kinder I see tons of huge crawfish. Are they the same kind that people eat? Has anyone here ever eaten a crawfish out of Arizona waters? Did it taste good? Might be a nice way to supplement nasty dried food while backpacking.

Yes they are, yes I have, and yes it did.

They are all over the place, if there's perrenial water you can probably find some crawfish. They are not indiginous, so the more you eat the more you help out the local ecology. Eat up!

How do you cook them?

How do you cook mudbugs? Well first, you gotta catch 'em! You can tie any old piece of meat on the end of a string and they will latch on. Then you gotta grab 'em in the back where they can't pinch you and put 'em in a bucket. When the bucket gets too full they will climb all over each other to get out. It is a rather ugh-some spectacle!

Then you have to rinse them as best you can and boil them in a great big pot of water. You can put this spice called "Shrimp and Crab Boil" in there if you like. When they get pink it's feasting time. You need to have a pan of melted butter (careful not to scorch it!!) ready, too. The first look at all those legs on your plate will likely be intimidating, until you get up the gumption to actually taste one. Then, especially if you are fond of crab and lobster, there will be no stopping you!

Some people used to soak them overnight in lye water. I don't know the specifics of this, but it takes some of the ickyness out of them. Maybe someone else knows about this? We never did do that, but I've heard about it.

What I prefer to do is after i've caught them is keep them in a little play pool for about a week feeding them lettuce and oats. Reason for this is to let them clear thier intestinal tract of gritty stuff.(Of course you will have to skip this step out in the field!) Then I bust out my Paul Prudhomme cookbook 'cause I love Cajon food! I think you will find that crawdads are much richer(read: more filling) than shrimp!

which parts do you eat? I heard people suck there heads? Or do you eat it like a crab, eating the claws and such?

In response to domromer's reply: The tail is about the only meat on a crawdad worth the effort and they are delicious. A good way to catch them in large numbers is to buy a minnow trap.One of those wire baskets jobbies with the inverted cone that have the hole in them on each end..make the holes larger by an inch or so..find some crawdad infested waters, put a freshy caught dead fish in the minnow trap, the best place for a trap is slow moving or still water with a rocky bottom. Wet Beaver creek, West Clear creek, Oak Creek and the Verde river have millions of crawdads. Nothing like a good crawdad feast and a cooler full of Tecate and a bottle of tabasco

In response to wetbeaverlover's reply: I'm going to Kinder this weekend and there are millions of them. I'll try boling them with some old bay in the water. It's what I use for blue crabs

In response to domromer's reply:
It's to bad your in Flagstaff I have three crawfish traps here at home. I Made them several years back when in Ca. they have plenty of experience!

Ended up having a crawdad fry this weekend at Kinder. They were fun to catch and took forever to cook due to heavy winds blowing out my stove. I don't think they got all the prep thay deserved. I rinsed them a few times in fresh water, then boiled them with a handful of crab boil seasoning. They tasted kind of nice like crab and kind of muddy. I'll try it again and try to prepare them better. I'll post some pics from the fry-up.

Mabe in the area next weekend. Did you camp at/near Kinder Crossing ?
My trip plans are not final yet, vehicle camp, mtn. bike camp or a backpack trip. Waiting to hear from some friends as to plans.

yes, I was at kinder Crossing. There was another group of campers, and about 12 day hikers throughout the day

Last spring I was hiking in the Cerbert mountians west of Kingman. While exploring a canyon we found a nice spring flowing quite a bit of water.
We noticed the bottom of the pool, there was a bunch of blue crawdads. I had never seen a blue crawdad before!!!
All it took to catch the blue boys was to put a stick next to thier pinchers, They would grab on and you could just hoist them out of the water.
It was an inspect and release

In response to Teetsb7's reply:
I've seen blue daddies in Ca. when I was growing up out there.

In response to domromer's reply:

Boil them in clean water till pink and then change them into spiced water{what ever you want to spice it with. I use cajun hot sauce} boil for about 10 min. Then eat em up. My Boy Scouts love em First boil causes them to defecat and rids them of the grit and mud etc on them.Second flavors them. Crayfish are really good even without the spices. Just butter for dippin.

azbackpackr wrote:

Some people used to soak them overnight in lye water. I don't know the specifics of this, but it takes some of the ickyness out of them. Maybe someone else knows about this? We never did do that, but I've heard about it.

It is referred to as "purging". We do it at work with all mollusks. It helps then release some of the muck so to speak. We usually do about 1 tblspn Kosher or Sea Salt to 2 qt water.

We rarely work with crayfish at work. But when usually just give them a thorough rinse and make sure they are not resting in there own, uh, juices so to speak. In the wild this wont be a problem.

I had to do a quick google on this to see if purging works on crustacians as well. Heres a link to a site that claims purging them overnight will possibly kill them. They recommend only going for 10 minutes in the brine.

http://www.bayoubountyseafood.com/prep.htm

At work we probally follow roughly to the same time frame. But usually around 25 minutes total, it gets busy sometimes. Always make sure to add ice if your at home. AZ tap water is nearly boiling.

Teetsb7 wrote:Last spring I was hiking in the Cerbert mountians west of Kingman. While exploring a canyon we found a nice spring flowing quite a bit of water.
We noticed the bottom of the pool, there was a bunch of blue crawdads. I had never seen a blue crawdad before!!!
All it took to catch the blue boys was to put a stick next to thier pinchers, They would grab on and you could just hoist them out of the water.
It was an inspect and release

I'm pretty sure the blue is from a recessive gene, like albinism in mammals. If that pool became isolated and there were enough carriers of the gene, the condition could have become pervasive. I have no idea if that is the case, but it's pretty cool if it is.

I'm from New England and can tell you the best way to prep fresh clams, lobster and shrimp, the same with crawdads. Rinse them in cool water and then put them in a tub(or sink) of cool water with salt (just chuck a 1/4 cup of salt into a big 'ole tub of water) AND about a cup or two of cornmeal. This will go through their digestive system really quickly and remove all the grittiness. Let sit for one hour then rinse really well 2 or 3 times. Steam in a large steamer pot with "old Bay" seasoning, a few bay leaves and a bottle of beer (in the water).

:mrgreen:

You can boil them until they are a reddish- pink color and then peel them. After peeling them you can saute the meat in butter and garlic for flavor.
I find that the bigger ones are the ones that tend to be blue. They are usually in bigger streams or deeper water pools.

Just had some last week at Kinder. Boiled 'em up back at camp.

An important note to anybody interested: You are required to have an AZ Fishing License to take crawfish. The daily take is unlimited, but if you use a net/trap, you need to mark it with your Lic. # and address if you leave it unattended. You are not allowed to return a caught crawfish to the water. You must eat it or "humanely dispose" of it (according to azgfd). Transporting live crawdads is a big no-no as they are not native to Arizona waters and live ones may be introduced to new waters inadvertently.