Part II: How to purge crawfish prior to boiling or steaming them.

Purging your crawfish involves overnight with lots of water and iodized salt. I successfully did this by putting all of my live crawfish in a large, empty ice chest. I then filled it with water some water to completely cover the crawfish (do not put too much water or you’ll drown them. Then, you add at least one full canister of Iodized Salt to the water. This will induce them to eliminate (poop or vomit) out any remaining undigested stuff in their GI system. Crawfish feed on the bottom and will eat any live or decaying animals; moreover, they feed on plants. Lastly, I recommend that you should wash the crawfish 3 times in a bucket till the water runs clear. This will get off the mud that may be stuck to their shells—you don’t want that coming off in your boiling pot…your water will turn brown! Also, with a gloved hand, reach around in the water and pull out any sticks or plants: you don’t want to be boiling that either!



Above photo shows a large white ice chest which is perfect for purging crawfish, as well as 2 smaller containers with crawfish. There is over 100 pounds of crawfish in those 3 containers...at least 3 full sacks of crawfish.




This is a near-full basket of crawfish that typically holds 35 pounds of crawfish.