To Purge Or Not To Purge Your Crawfish

It's been a debate forever amongst people in Louisiana.

Everyone that knows how to boil crawfish has a different way to boil crawfish. I'm from New Orleans and the way we boil crawfish is way different, not better, not worse, just different than here in Acadiana.

For instance, all the years I've been alive I've never seen people put seasoning on top of the crawfish. In New Orleans we just don't do that. (not that it's a bad thing.)

I'll give you a quick story. When I moved to Lafayette, my first Acadiana crawfish experience was at Gator Cove on Hwy 90. The waiter asked me if I wanted my crawfish mild or extra spicy. I was like "I want it extra spicy, bring it on Baaaybe!" When he brought out the 3 pounds of crawfish it was covered in spices. I was like "this is different." If you know me well enough, you know that I'll try anything at least once.

Two cups of water and 5 beers later I was only through half of the 3 pounds of crawfish. LOL!! It was truly extra spicy. My hands were swelling up from all the spices that covered the crawfish and there was no way I was going to lick my fingers. I ask him to wrap it up and he chuckled at me and said 'I guess you'll get it mild next time." True story.

Another thing I've never seen before, people in Acadiana put a stick of butter in their boil. Once again, something I've never seen or heard of before. I was told that the stick of butter was to make the crawfish peel better. There are literally a hundred different ways to boil crawfish.

Another thing I was always told to do was to purge the crawfish before you boil them. This has been a debate among people in Louisiana for as long as I've been alive. Some say a good cleaning of the crawfish is better than purging them, some say you have to purge them in order for them to taste good.

Basically all you do to purge the crawfish is fill up an ice chest with water and pour a container of salt in the water with the crawfish. It's supposed to clean out their system. In other words, make them poop.

Well according to LSU Ag Center and crawfish expert Dr. Greg Lutz, purging crawfish in salty water is a waste of time, and doesn't clear out the crawfish's digestive tracts at all.

According to WWL Dr. Greg Lutz said :