Have we been lied to this whole time? Was it just an old wive's tale?

Some scientists got together at LSU AgCenter to bust some crawfish myths. Like the one about the straight tailed crawfish being dead before it was put into the boiling pot, and does salting a crawfish actually purge them?

According to Ray McClain, a crawfish researcher (didn't know that was a thing) at the Rice Research Station in Crowley, says that the straight-tailed crawfish were more likely to be alive before going into the boiling pot.

The reseachers at LSU AgCenter showed that the degree of the tail curl in cooked crawfish was not significantly different between crawfish alive at the time they were cooked and those that had been dead prior to cooking.

So the question still remains, why do some have straight tails while the majority don't when taken out of the pot?

The researchers have concluded it may be as simple as another crawfish having blocked their tail from curling or the mudbug was shoved up against the side of the pot and its tail couldn't curl.

So, there you go! : )

If you want to find out why salting crawfish before boiling them does nothing, you can go to LSU AgCenter's websiteSave the salt for potato salad.

Even after reading this, will you still throw out the straight tailed ones, right? Yes, of course you will. LOL!!! That old wive's tail will never go away, even if we know that the straight ones might have been alive, there is still a chance that they were dead before. ; )

 

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