Ain’t no party like a Baton Rouge crawfish boil, because the smell of a Baton Rouge crawfish boil will linger on your hands for a week.
We use them to celebrate everything from Good Friday to graduations, to spice up a Saturday night in the spring, to get to know our neighbors and get food-drunk with our families. We’re addicts, and the only way to get our fix is more of that hot, steamy red crawfish. We don’t care that our noses are running and our lips are burning; we just want more.
Sure, places around town like Sammy’s Grill and LA Boilers are beloved for their boils, but there’s nothing quite like hosting your own. We took a shift at the paddle with Lars Carlsen, local freelance boilmaster and go-to boiler for the LSU football team (he says he’s still Odell Beckham Jr.’s favorite) to find out the secrets to the best-ever crawfish boil.
HOW TO PICK YOUR BUGS
Size matters. “When you’re buying live crawfish, the perfect size is actually the mediums. You get enough meat, but any bigger and you’re just paying more for a bunch of heads and shells.” – Lars Carlsen
HOW TO PREP YOUR TABLES
Long before we had those green plastic bins by our back doors, most of us recycled our newspapers in a less official but much more entertaining way: by saving them for crawfish boils. Here’s the tried and true method of crawfish table prep for quick and easy cleanup. It’s all in the layering.
Layer No. 1: Black garbage bags Line the table with these first. They’ll repel all the crawfish juices that leak through the newspapers and make it easier to ball up and haul out your crustacean carcasses when you’re done ravaging them.
Layer No. 2: Old copies of The Advocate These days, what purpose do those old print newspapers serve, other than to give you that classic crawfish boil-table look? We’re not exactly sure. But we’d never go without them.
Layer No. 3: Paper towels and sauce You’re asking for your entire home to be smeared in crawfish guts if you’re not putting out at least one roll of paper towels on top of each table before the first pot is dumped. Dipping sauce is optional but encouraged.
ALL THE FIXINS
What’s a boil without tons of veggies and other good stuff in the water, soaking up all that seasoning?
Most popular add-ins:
Yellow onions
Corn on the cob
Red potatoes
Sausage (Carlsen uses the Savoie’s brand)
Baby bella mushrooms
Lemons
Garlic
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For the adventurous:
Celery (Odell Beckham Jr.’s fave, for its ability to soak up fiery spices)
Artichokes
Oranges
Pineapple
Brussels sprouts
Edamame
Beets
Asparagus
Green beans
HOW TO PEEL CRAWFISH (THE RIGHT WAY)
If you’re from here, you learned how to peel a crawfish (or fetch your dad a beer while he peeled) by the time you were in first grade. If you’re not from here, we probably give you hell for not knowing how to peel a crawfish every time you go to a boil. Here’s how most Baton Rouge natives do the deed.
PINCH the tail between your thumb and forefinger.
TWIST & PULL the tail to separate it from the head.
SUCK the head. Optional.
SQUEEZE the tail to crack the shell, peel off the first few plates, and pull the meat out of the tail.
DON’T TOSS the claws! Slowly wiggle the “thumb” part of the claw while pulling it out to get that juicy claw meat.
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This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.
