History
The Sacramento River Delta has been one of the largest US sources of freshwater crawfish since the early 1900s, when Louisiana growers imported the red swamp crawfish to Delta ponds. By the 1980s the Isleton Crawdad Festival had become the Father's Day fixture across the Delta, with boils on Main Street pulling thousands of visitors. The boil is the same as the Louisiana home version, with crawfish, corn, potatoes, sausage and lots of cayenne and Old Bay, but the catch is from California growers and the season runs March to October with a Father's Day peak.
Common allergens: Shellfish
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 2.5kg live freshwater crawfish
- 6 small new potatoes, halved
- 3 ears of sweet corn, halved
- 500g smoked andouille or kielbasa sausage, sliced 5cm
- 2 lemons, halved
- 1 head garlic, halved horizontally
- 1 large onion, halved
- 100g Old Bay seasoning
- 2 tbsp cayenne
- 2 tbsp salt
- Optional: 2 bay leaves, 1 tbsp black peppercorns
Method
- Rinse the live crawfish in cold water several times until the water runs clear. Discard any dead crawfish.
- Fill a 30L pot with water, leaving 10cm headroom. Add Old Bay, cayenne, salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, onion and lemons. Bring to a rolling boil.
- Add potatoes and sausage. Boil 10 minutes.
- Add corn. Boil another 5 minutes.
- Add crawfish. Stir well. Cover and boil 5 minutes, then turn off the heat.
- Let the crawfish steep covered for 15 minutes. Drain the pot onto a newspaper-lined table and serve hot with cold beer.
Tip from the editors. The crawfish keep cooking off the heat. If they overcook the meat goes mealy. Test at minute 12 of the steep and pull them when the tails just curl.
Where to eat sacramento delta crawfish boil
Sacramento Delta Crawfish Boil in Sacramento
Featured by TableJourney as a signature dish of Sacramento. See the Sacramento signature dishes guide for the canonical version.
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