The Working Man’s Crawfish

“Found Food” isn’t something we think about in a lot of the world today. We wanted to celebrate one of the best found foods in the world with this Crawfish Soup! This is”The Working Man’s Crawfish”

Instagram ➧ townsends_official

[aroundthefarmcrafts]

On the cleanse your crawdads, there's more to that than most people would think. A southern gentleman once explained to me that after you catch your crawdads you need to leave them in a clean bucket of water overnight so that the expel the contents of their "mud vein" and then they are clean and can be boiled.

[denisedaisy]

I think this is a poormans soup because, first you eat the crawdish, then make the soup out if the nonedible parts. At least thats how we do it.

[Xorrak]

In Sweden, we have a tradition around august (doesn't have to be in august but most people tend to do it then because it's still summer and warm and still on their vacation)
Kräftskiva we call it (crayfish party). Often served with pies and of course strong spirits. You put on little hats, have paper lanterns that look like a big moon and everyone de-husk the crayfish by hand. Singing is a must as well.
Some neighbourhoods even fish them together and then have these parties, especially if they live near water. Freshwater crayfish tend to be on smaller size though.

[genericalfishtycoon]

Crayfish are a really easy to catch survival food that you can easily upgrade into a bigger meal if you use them as bait. Here in Maine I catch 100 of them in 35 minutes, equiped with only a bucket and my hands. They're plentiful in healthy waters, and easy to find. Got some hunting tips and science stuff on in my short forms. I breed crayfish, farm them, feed them to my pets, even keep them as pets when one shows they're cooler than the rest. I also can turn them electric blue by feeding them algae rich in crustacyanin pigment, it overrides their natural dominant astaxanthin pigment and in a couple molts they're a stunning bright blue. (Vids of that too)

[dementious]

I live in the Gulf Coast area of Mississippi and crawdads are a delicacy down here. Also grew up in a very cajun family, so we very often had crawdads as a treat. We had huge drainage ditches in the neighborhood that never quite got empty and my dad would scour all of them a few times a year, catching hundreds of the little guys. Kids always made fun of me because they said my dad played in the ditches, but I would just rebuttal with HE WAS CATCHIN CRAWDADS AND WE HAD CRAWDADS FOR DINNER and that would typically make them a little jealous. To this day I still like to traverse the little streams and creeks at our local park and net up some crawfish for a little snack.

NOT having the crawdads as the main attraction is crazy. I've never even considered making a stock out of the heads and shells! Once they get back in season, I am definitely going to try this recipe with some wild caught crawdads. Thank you, once again, everyone at Townsends. I love the history and I appreciate the sometimes jarring ideas and eye opening information I get from y'all.

[Clarence_x]

In Boston, the crawdads are less prolific than they were in the 80’s. We had them crawling out of the storm drains in the early fall.

[bsongy]

Similar recipes exist in the 14th Century soyrce Goodman of Paris, as well as modern cookbooks, where it goes by the name Crawfish Etouffe. My interpretation, is the crawfish feet are removed and discarded. Then the tail and claws are removed, shelled and the raw meat is fried. Meanwhile, seperately, the remainder of the carcass, the crawfish "head", this includes tge shell along with the fat and visera inside, are pounded in a mortar. The pounded heads, along with onion, herbs etc are boiled to produce a Crawfish stock. Then this stock is filtered to remove the shell and large vegetable matter, thickened with bread crumbs (modern times a roux is more often used) and seasoned. After plating the stock, the fried crawfish neat are used as garnish. In modern times this is almost always setved over rice, and may include other additions such as tomato products or cream.


Here in Lafayette, Louisiana, boiling crustacean shells to produce a stock is still a standard practice.

[-_-_-_-]

Cool vid! Being that the tails are fried I doubt they were just a garnish. If this was a working man’s crawfish they’d be eating everything. I think they were thrown in to the soup or eaten on the side with the bread.

[fizzigigsimmer]

No matter how it was presented for aesthetics, I don’t think working people would be in the mindset to just waste quality meat when it was on hand. I think it makes more sense that it was presented to be pretty - we do like a little flair with our food - but you would be expected to eat it all together.

[DualKeys]

Peeling crawfish tails takes time and is hard on your fingers if you peel a large amount. I could totally see the tails being used as a garnish to allow each person to peel their own, saving the cook time and effort.

[alanbayman]

Quick PSA: if you live in California, don't go craw fishing here. The Gold Rush left a lot of mercury in our rivers, and the shellfish living here are often poisoned with it.

[GlenAndFriendsCooking]

Caught and ate so many crawfish as a child / early adult. Haven't had one in ages.

[Rob]

There is no way the tail meat wasn't eaten.

[John_Locke_]

A working class crawfish is something to be.

[commentername]

I don't think there's a chance the tails weren't eaten.

To me, it reads as poach them whole in seasoned water, then separate them and fry the tails (which would flavor them further and change the texture), make the broth (likely with the poaching water) using the broken pieces, strain and then add the mushrooms, bread and tails.

In a modern context, I would probably bundle the broken pieces in some cheesecloth or something during the broth making step so that they infuse their flavor but could be easily removed leaving the onions, egg, etc in the broth (though straining would still be fine).

[devinhardy]

I love this guy’s candor! Thank you for the work to bring this recipe to life, as well as an honest review of how it tastes and how it can be better. Keep up the great work!

[natviolen]

The critters pinch when you try to grip them in their hiding places 😁
The North American crawfish is an invasive species here in Denmark and a threat to local waters. But they taste great.

[derekwebb]

There's no way they would waste the meat from the tails. They would garnish with them, but I don't think that would stop anyone from eating them. In a crawfish that is where most of the edible meat is. I too the recipe to mean you mash up everything but the ails into a base for a broth and then add the tails back into it for the body of the soup. It just seems like common sense no matter what the time period, that you wouldn't discard the best part of the animal.

[renebrock]

I was taught to 'purge' or clean the systems out by 1: Put them into alarge cooler or tub with a drain. 2: Sprinkle them liberally with any kind of salt. 3: Immediately start running fresh, clean water into the tub until the water runs clear.
This will not kill them, but will cause them to purge in a survival response. But it will make them mad! Then you can close the drain, add more water, and leave them until needed. Also, make sure there is some kind of cover for the container. Otherwise, cats, raccoons, squirrels, and birds will treat the tub like a buffet!
This recipe seems very wasteful to me, especially given a pioneer mindset. Maybe that's just me.

[antkara]

This channel is such a gem. Love this series as well.