What are Crayfish?
A crayfish is a type of crustation that lives in fresh water. They go by many names such as crawfish, crawdads, yabbies and mudbugs to name but a few, depending on where you are in the world.
They look like small lobsters and share the same basic anatomy, though they belong to a completely different family within the crustation group.
Crayfish are normally considered a pest in most parts of the world, as they have rather destructive behaviour. Here in the UK the native whiteclaw crayfish is being driven to extinction from the invader species, the American signal crayfish, as they not only eat them since they are much smaller, but also carry a fungal disease that kills the native species if they are in the same body of water.
They also like to burrow into banks and since they typically live in swarms this can have a devastating effect over time, with them being able to collapse sections of the banks if there’s enough of them.
As for breeding the females will carry several dozen eggs under her tail and when they hatch, the young are just left to get on with it with no protection from their parents at all.
They are known to eat each other, even ones within the same species but this normally only occurs when their normal food sources have been depleted.
Where to find them
Crayfish like slow moving fresh water, such as rivers and streams, though they can often also be found in canals and lakes. They need a food source to survive which normally includes at least the occasional fish, which means anything to shallow or small normally isn’t going to be a good spot.
Bodies of water where the bottom is covered in a hard surface such as stone and pebbles seem to be preferred as their tiny sharp legs seem to struggle more in mud.
Gathering Crayfish
The single best way to gather crayfish is to use a trap. They are normally pretty cheap and though they come in all shapes and sizes they work in the same way. A cone shaped entrance will lead into the central area where they will walk up and fall down to a lower level and get stuck.
The best bait to use in a trap is fish, as this is the smell they recognise as being the food of choice, though various other meats also work well, especially bacon. Whatever bait you are using make sure to leave your trap in overnight, and preferably when its a little warmer as most species go to sleep if the water’s too cold in a sort of mini hibernation.
The other way to catch them is by hand, which can be rather difficult and involves getting wet, making it a method to use in warm countries or in extreme situations.
Start by finding an area wheres there plenty of them, you can test this by turning over rocks and poking a stick around various cracks and places they may be hiding to see if any get flushed out. When you’ve found a good spot check the bank first to see if there’s any burrows and if so you can either dig them out or reach in and see if you can grab one.
To grab a crayfish by hand either grab it by the tail with it facing away from you if possible, or if you’re reaching into a burrow keep your fingers straight and go above the crayfish and grab it round the body while your palm is above its head so the claws cant reach back far enough to pinch you.
Cleaning and cooking
When you’ve gathered enough for a meal you now have the option of purging them before you cook them. To do this put them in a tub with a little water in and pour over some salt and leave them for an hour or 2. They will continuously flush themselves out and anything sitting in their stomachs or intestinal canal will be passed.
If you don’t want to put them in salt water, you can put them in fresh water and leave them for 6 to 12 hours, making sure you change the water a few times. Some people put them through various other flushing out methods, such a putting them in fresh water with some grain for them to eat, though this is unnecessary as the bad bits are removed before eating.
If you’re not to bothered about the purging you can cook them straight away, though make sure you at least give them a good rinse first.
To cook them its the same with any shellfish, simply get some water on a good rolling boil and drop the crayfish straight in. If you wish to kill them first take a strong knife and put the point on the middle of the shell where the body part meets the head section with the blade facing towards the front of the crayfish. Then with a single strong motion stab down all the way through it till the point of the knife touches the surface its on, and chop forwards, cutting the head in half. This method is the most humane because as soon as you stab down it destroys the brain, killing it instantly.
After cooking them wait till they cool down enough to handle and snap off the claws and tail. Either with some scissors or some strong hands, open up the tail section by cutting or tearing the lighter coloured under side and extract the meat. Sometimes after snapping the tail off it can be pulled right out the shell, but if not just tear or snip. As for the claws tap the shells with something to crack them, then simply peel and take the meat out. There isn’t any meat worth getting out the body or legs as they are way to small.
What to do with your cooked crayfish
They work in pretty much anything that you would use a prawn in, especially salads. If you intend to put them in something cooked, just treat them as you would a prawn of the same size and cook accordingly.
One of the best things to do with crayfish in my opinion is the good old crayfish boil.
Take your cleaned and possibly purged and pre-dispatched crayfish, several whole corn on the cob, some sliced sausage and some chopped or small potatoes.
Start the corn, sausage and potatoes boiling first and when they’ve had 10 minutes drop in the crayfish and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how big your pot is.
When ready strain them and simply dump the lot out in a big pile on some newspaper or a large serving dish. Best garnished with loads of butter and slices of lemon.
Now for the science stuff:
Average energy per 100 g: 87 calories
Average protein per 100 g: 18g
Average sodium per 100g: 97mg
Average cholesterol per 100g: 137mg
Average potassium per 100g: 238mg