re: Can y’all post your crawfish boil recipes???

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I was wondering if having the fixins' in the whole time would take a fair amount of the seasoning away that are meant for the crawfish.

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I don’t believe that is how it works. The seasoned water does not become less seasoned if you leave vegetables in. The only thing that would make the seasoned water less potent is more plain water. Sure, the vegetables have water in them but the amount is negligible. So adding vegetables does not take away from the spice level that you want for your crawfish.

As someone else said, you are overthinking it.

Why do they sink? What makes that happen?

I like to add a little more heat each batch. At most I would do 2-3 sacks. But if you start over every sack that mean all the ingredients have to be re-added, onion, lemons, tub of seasoning, liquid boil etc. That's doesn't make sense economically.

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Why do they sink? What makes that happen?

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It’s the heating and cooling cycle. When they are boiling their shells slightly expand and hold some gas/steam. As they cool, the shells slightly contract which allows the gas to escape and some liquid to enter.

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But if you start over every sack that mean all the ingredients have to be re-added, onion, lemons, tub of seasoning, liquid boil etc. That's doesn't make sense economically.

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But you're already having to add some tub seasoning and liquid boil I assume. I'd already be adding more onion/garlic/mushrooms etc because people eat all that. So the only real savings is maybe half a tub of seasoning and $5 worth of citrus. Let's be generous and call it $15. I'll pay an extra $15 per sack to have the flavor exactly how I want it every time.

And if we're being honest, boiling your own doesn't make any sense economically when Rouses for example is charging $3.75 live or $4,50 boiled.

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What can be taken out of the recipe without affecting the taste of the crawfish. I'm guessing:

Sausage
Onions
Potatoes
Mushrooms
Garlic
Frozen Corn

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Sounds about right. I don't know if the garlic adds to the flavor or not, but i'd maybe leave that in.

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I see that you still do half citrus before and half after the fire is cut. If you ever go all citrus after the fire is cut, please let me know how you like it.

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I see some suggest to pour in the Lousianiana liquid boil after the fire is cut. Have you tried that?

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I have not.

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On step 6, what is the reason for sprinkling salt after you add the crawfish? First time I see someone does this

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Early batches i never really did the salt, and i recall one boil, the batch was a little bland. So now, i just take a tube of morton salt and do a sprinkle. It's not much, and likely doesn't do much with the volume, probably more habit than anything else.

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I'll stir some to release heat but throwing a 5-7 pound bag of ice definitely helps in dropping those top crawfish

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It does nothing to the other 80% of the crawfish though.

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I'm not filling the entire 120 quart pot with water, 40 quarts (1/3)

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You are on the low side of water though it seems.

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It does NOTHING to dilute your seasoning that you can taste.

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I dunno. Maybe maybe not.

Like I said, they're hard to screw up so staying somewhere around a few key things and I think they will be good.

NO. I don't know how else to spell it out. I've done this 20+ years with great success. If I can't convince you, no big deal. Believe what you want and I'll keep doing what I do.

As far as the crawfish under, don't really care. They are already soaking under the top layer. Top layer cools off and everything settles with nothing floating.

Was just about to say your math isn't mathing out but see you corrected it.

Literally just cooked 4 sacks this weekend with no leftovers. Everyone saying how great they were and how juicy and full crawfish were. I'm not trying to brag seriously, I've done this too many times to know how good it works. I mean could I be adding extra seasoning I'm not aware of and the bag of ice DILUTES it some to make it perfect..... maybe.

For real. They're pretty hard to mess up. Buy good crawfish, clean them well, and don't overcook.

Crawfish has gotten so complicated the last ten years. People buying thousand dollar rigs to cook two sacks in their yard.

I broke down and bought one crawfish contraption. Those little cleaners you hook up a hose to. Works pretty well and like 50 bucks

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I'm sure they're good, but more water is gonna dilute the flavor.

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It sure will. But if you account for the extra water from melted ice in your spice recipe, then it doesn't matter.

I always add about the same amount of ice, so I've got my salt / spice level pretty tuned in. If you never add ice, and then decide to add it without adjusting your salt / spice level, obviously it will taste more bland.