How To Eat Boiled Crawfish

Here’s how to make quick work of the shell and get to those tasty morsels.

1 of 5 Illustration: Ryan Kelly

Grasp

Hold crawfish on both sides of the tail joint, your thumbs on one side of the shell and your index fingers on the other.

2 of 5 Illustration: Ryan Kelly

With a twisting motion, snap the head away from the tail. (Optional step for diehards: Suck the juice from the crawfish head.)

3 of 5 Illustration: Ryan Kelly

Use your thumbs to peel away the shell from the widest part of the tail, pulling back from the center, just as you would peel a shrimp.

4 of 5 Illustration: Ryan Kelly

Hold the tip of the tail and gently tug out the tender meat. Enjoy! (Don’t live on the bayou? Order online at lacrawfish.com.)

5 of 5 Photo: Beth Dreiling Hontzas

Try out some of our favorite crawfish recipes.