People just really misuse the word purge. Purgeing them is the actual 48 hour process of letting everything digest out of their body. When the at home guy puts the mudbugs in a cooler and fills with water, drains, repeats several times until the water is clear that is actually not purging them. You are just cleaning out the mud in the "mouths" But everybody always refers to that process as purgeing. And yes, absolutely yes cleaning the mud off them makes a tremendous difference in the way they taste.