CRAWFISH SYMBOLISM The crawfish is the dominant food-related ethnic symbol in Acadiana, and continues to be an endearing symbol of Louisiana. Sam Irwin, a native of Breaux Bridge, La. —the ‘Crawfish Capital of the World’—believes crawfish, a symbol of steadfastness and courage, should be named our state symbol.

Official nationwide comparisons are not available, but industry experts estimate that Louisiana usually accounts for 90%-95% of the total U.S. production from year to year, either from wild waters of the state, or on farms.

Crawfish are freshwater crustaceans abundant in the swamps and marshes of south Louisiana.

Louisiana’s crawfish farming industry has grown to include more than 1,200 farms occupying more than 120,000 acres. Production from wild habitats, mainly the Atchafalaya River basin, varies from year to year.

Most crawfish farms are small operations between 10 – 20 acres. But the largest producers could reach as high as thousands of acres. Size matters when ! Yield: You can expect to grow 700 – 1200 pounds of crawfish annually in what’s considered to be a high-yield farm.

Crawfish, crayfish, and crawdads are the same animal. Louisianans most often say crawfish, whereas Northerners are more likely to say crayfish. People from the West Coast or Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas often use the term crawdad. In the Mississippi Delta, they call them mud bugs.

Louisiana

Though the crawfish boil wasn’t always as popular as it is today, eating crawfish in Louisiana dates all the way back to pre-colonial times. Though the Acadians (ancestors of the Cajuns) are often credited with bringing crawfish to Louisiana, Native Americans were eating the shellfish long before European arrival.

In the 1700’s, Acadians, now Cajuns, arrived from Canada and settled along bayous. Crawfish were eaten mostly of necessity, as the poor man’s food was cheap and readily accessible. By the 1800s, the Acadians were modifying lobster recipes from the Canadian roots to suit the smaller crustacean.

What is the yellow stuff inside a crawfish? The bright yellow to orange crawfish “stuff” squeezed from the heads and sticking to the tail meat is not fat in the usual sense. It actually is an organ in the head called the hepatopancreas that functions much like the liver in other animals out there.

The taste of crawfish is indescribable. There is no other food that tastes like it in the world. Many people think that crawfish meat should taste like a lobster or crab because it is a crustacean, but crawfish is actually classified as a type of fish. However, it tastes nothing like what a fish tastes like.

You boil the eggs for deviled eggs that it is why do they put boiled eggs in seafood boil harder boil. The heat, let the water boil a dunk in an ice water bath to rapidly them. Often as eggs that are fast approaching their expiration date feel pain eggs to up.

You’ve maybe heard it called many names: Frogmore Stew, Beaufort Stew, Lowcountry boil, Louisiana Crawfish boil or a tidewater boil.

When it comes to whether or not a crawfish boil is heart-healthy, the crawfish alone are not necessarily the issue. Crawfish actually have some health benefits. They are low in calories, a good source of protein, and provide many essential vitamins and minerals.

While there’s no exact date of origin that we know of to place when seafood boils started, it’s safe to say that with the arrival of Cajun people from Maritime regions of Canada in the 1700’s, one of the culinary traditions they brought with them was the seafood boil.

In fact, crawfish really do look like baby lobsters. Crawfish average in size from two to six inches in length, while lobster can grow to more than twenty inches.

The main difference between crawfish and shrimp is that the crawfish is an exclusively freshwater decapod with a pair of large, front claws whereas the shrimp is usually a saltwater decapod with a long tail. Furthermore, shrimps are larger than crawfish.

Cajun, descendant of Roman Catholic French Canadians whom the British, in the 18th century, drove from the captured French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia and adjacent areas) and who settled in the fertile bayou lands of southern Louisiana. The Cajuns today form small, compact, generally self-contained communities.