1 purple sac is 30-35 lbs unpeeled, live crawfish.
1 purple sac fills about two 5 gallon buckets.
That yields 7 lbs of tail meat (one purple sac of 30-35 pounds of live, uncooked crawfish).
1 sac of unpeeled, raw, live crawfish retails about $2.50-$2.75 per pound in the purple sac.
Boiled crawfish retails about $5-6 per pound in a restaurant. Almost all restaurants will charge $30
for a platter of 5 pounds of cooked, seasoned boiled crawfish.
1 lb of uncooked tail meat retails in a store for $12-15.
Once you have caught your live crawfish, here is how to BOIL them (Quick and Long versions):
Get a regular sized crawfish boiling pot that has the inner basket inside of it with the handle; and place it on top of a burner stand that runs on propane gas.
1. Fill the boiling pot with water: 1/2 or 3/4 full.
2. QUICK BOIL version—add a few cups of vinegar, a few cut lemons and vegetable cooking oil for softness (this mixture softens the crawfish shells! Then add liquid and/or powdered seasoning (Zatarain’s Proboil), and add vegetables in a zipper lingerie bag (these porous bags are used for washing lingerie or “delicates” in a washing machine; and they are located at Wal-Mart in the household section). You can put onions, potatoes, and corn into the bag and zip it up. And you may also had fresh Savoie’s sausage. Put the lid back on the pot. Then bring to a roaring boil until the potatoes are soft when you cut them with a knife; turn the fire down so it does not boil over and on the outside of your pot and down it and wetten your fire/flame—extinguishing it. Boiling hard potatoes and corn may take as long as 20 minutes. Boil veggies first; once boiling water for awhile, then remove the veggies that are in the bag with something that can hook it in the hot water. Be careful: the lid is very hot…use gloves at all times when handling the equipment. Moreover, I wear waterproof, thick insulated boots, too, as I have seen people get the boiling hot water splashed or spilled onto their feet...talk about hurt! I saw the skin and toe nails peel and fall off. Ouch!
3. Once you have removed the hot, cooked vegetables, put them into a separate, empty ice chest (or any closed-lid container) and sprinkle some more Cajun/Creole seasoning on them and close the lid. REMEMBER: with the closed lid on the ice chest, not only do the vegetable stay hot, but they may further cook themselves by steaming!!! So, beware of overcooking the potatoes, or else you’ll end-up with mashed potatoes later on when you open up that ice chest again. By the way, you boil your vegetables first because that is the cleanest water. Once you start adding batches and batches of crawfish, the water muddies (gets dirty)!
4. Turn the heat/fire back up on your boiling pot and get to a roaring boil again and add more seasoning. Then add your 1st batch of live crawfish; wait for awhile for them to start to reach a roaring boil; once boiling, turn your fire slightly down again to avoid your batch from boiling over, and boil them for 5 minutes. Done!
5. To be sure they are done; here are some tried & tested ways to know: the crawfish are floating; the crawfish have turned from dark red to bright red/pink in color; and thirdly, the tail is pulling away from the body of their shell: i.e., you can see a thin line of crawfish tail meat showing where their tail meats their body. This is due to expansion of the crawfish tail meat during the boiling process. Be sure to use gloves when handling the equipment (the lid, crawfish basket, etc). I personally use a metal rod with a curve on the end of it or a small wooden pole with a hook screwed into the end of it to catch the lid and the inner basket.
6. After you dump & added the 1st batch of boiled crawfish into the ice chest with the seasoned, cooked vegetables, again sprinkle them lightly with seasoning and close the lid. Then shake the ice chest from left to right several times to mix the crawfish and vegetables around. This will keep all of it warm and well-seasoned!
7. Then, you repeat the above process for crawfish. Fire-up you flame at full force again to get the water at a roaring boil, then add the 2nd batch of crawfish. Close the lid until you see the lid coming off, then turn down the fire after it is at a roaring boil.
8. Now, here is the LONG, SLOWER version—same as above, but once a roaring boil is reached, add crawfish for 3 minutes @ the full roaring boil without turning down the fire at all. Then stop boiling by turning off the fire completely and the crawfish soak for 10-15 minutes in the hot water. I am told that this allows them to soak up the seasoning better into their meat.
9. Dump the boiled crawfish into an ice chest; add more powdered season or Cayenne pepper to taste; shake the whole thing and can keep the lid on if you want to season them some more.
10. Enjoy! Now just add a nice cold beverage...iced tea or iced cold beer, and "you're good to go!" Laissez les bon temps rouler (Let the good times roll)!
Holding a fisherman's basket packed with about 25 pounds of live crawfish.
Taking the live crawfish from my icechest behind me, scooping them out, and putting them in the boiling water.
Dumping freshly boiled crawfish out of the basket and into a container before they are served to people.
Fresh, boiled crawfish with corn, potatoes, onions and sausage: all mixed with Cajun and Creole seasonings.
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A large serving bowl of crawfish; and a smaller bowl of crawfish for an individual.
A well-balanced platter of 3 pounds of boiled crawfish, mixed with perfectly cooked corn, onions and potatoes. This small sized platter is perfect for young kids. I typically eat 8 pounds of boiled crawfish!
In a Texas or Louisiana restaurant--expect to pay at least $25-30 for just 5 pounds of boiled crawfish, which are NOT fresh, and that price does NOT include any beverages. Ouch...I can boil 70 pounds of my own farm fresh, organic crawfish for about $15 bucks--that includes my bait and the cooking supplies (propane gas, seasonings, vegetables, Cajun sausage).
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