I'm doing a crawfish boil next weekend, and, for the first time, I read the directions on the back of Zatarain's liquid boil. for 5lbs of crawfish, it calls for 1tbs of liquid boil?!?! WTF?!? I've never really measured in the past, just eyeballed it, but for two sacks of crawfish (60 lbs, used to be 80lbs ) I go through a 1 gallon jug of liquid and a 1 gallon jug of granular seasoning. Is this a misprint on the label? Am I crazy? What gives?

I use their liquid concentrate for my shrimp. I probably use 2 tablespoons or more in 3/4-gallon water for just one pound of shrimp. Always taste great. No complaints.

I’m cooking some tonight, this is Captin Dave’s…



I got 1 sack (30lbs), and I will use it all.

Personally I believe I have my recipe down to a T but everyone's taste buds are different. Here is what I use for one sack. If you're boiling two sacks, use another bag of seasoning after the first sack is finished.

- 5 oranges
- 5 lemons
- 3 onions
- 2 bags of red potatoes
- half a 4.5lb bag of Louisiana crawfish boil
- half a 4.5 bag of Louisiana fire crawfish boil
- 8oz of the Louisiana concentrate
- frozen corn

Throw in seasonings, concentrate, oranges, lemons and onions while bringing to a boil. Once at a boil throw the potatoes in there for 9 minutes. Once al-dente, dump the washed crawfish in there. Bring back to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. After the two minutes are up, throw the frozen corn in the stop the cook and let them soak. Start tasting them around minute 15 until you get the spice you want.

I’m on par with this.

Just now seeing this, so I assume the crawfish boil has already occured. How did it go? Reason I am asking is that the boil time in those instructions are way too long. The biggest mistake folks make in boiling crawfish is not with the seasoning, it is overcooking -- which makes for tough and mealy meat, but also makes it much harder to peel the shell off. If you boil for another 10 minutes after the water comes back to a full boil, then that is too long, but also just turning the fire off and letting the crawfish soak means the crawfish will continue cooking. Also, unless the potatoes are very very small, they will take much longer to cook than the crawfish. It's almost impossible to tell someone how long to boil crawfish because of so many factors. Besides the size of crawfish and the thickness of the shell (maturity), each cooking rig is different -- some take a long time to "come back to a full boil" and others can boil quickly. Keep in mind, that when dumped in the hot pot crawfish will start cooking before the water comes to a full boil. Often they are almost fully cooked before the water come back to a rolling boil, so cooking 10 more minutes is too long. Usually, the vegetables need to be cooked separate or cooked first before the crawfish are dumped in. The best way to determine if the crawfish are done or nearly done is if they start to float. This is not always easy to tell in a crowded pot, but after cooking many thousands of pounds over 40+ years my main point is that it does not take long for crawfish to cook (similar to shrimp) and many folks (including some restaurants) tend to over-cook them. Properly cooked crawfish is so much more enjoyable and easier to peel.