so how do you cook your crays?

like the title says how do you cook yours?
I boil for 14 minutes from back to rolling boil with a bit of salt and vinegar,
hmmmmmm



Martin

HI Martin ,  8 mins only after the water comes back to the boil for wa  crays & blue swimmers , 14 -20 min max for the mudcrabs depending on size  , vinegar & salt to taste mate , albo .

Gday Martin
Used to boil them but now I steam them. Boil a kettle of water and dump it into the cooking pot, small cake rack in the bottom of the pot to keep the crays out of the water, whack the lid on for 14 minutes and hey presto. Heaps less water and crap to deal with and boil and cuts the whole process time in about half. Taste beautiful.
cheers
Brett

cheers guys, 8 min albo, for back to boil. ok maybe mine are over cooked. interesting the different time people say to cook them.
A mate does his for 8 minutes but then pickle them, now that is a recipie.
steaming sounds good too Brett, havne done it that way. hmmmmmm.

Hi Martin,

I can help with this one but it has been a while since we lived in Cue for three years but from memory we had to cook them in sea water because if you kept them for any length of time they would develop black spots on the white meat

Another way was to cut them in half with a large knife and whack them on a bbq, seal them on the flesh side and then turn over to finish cooking and baste with garlic butter which runs into the half shell

where did you manage to pick your crays up from

Ron

hi Ron, I have done them on the BBQ like that, they come up a real treat with chilli and garlic. got me mouth watering now lol. to stop the the black spots always drown crays in fresh water, makes them spew up all the crap and old bait, break off feelers and hang by tails on inside edge of bucket with pegs upside down to bleed, all the gell comes out after 10 min and you will get no more black on the meat or crap in the water.
I helped a mate out a few days ago, he had been trying for a few weeks now with limited success. asked if i wanted to get into it again for the off season and get some crays for xmas. went to the reefs off Quinns Rocks here north of perth, My better half dad was one of the original cray fisherman of the area so we know the reefs well. got two on the first pull, 4 yesterday and 10 today so going well and getting on to them. chase them out deep soon, should be a good xmas.

Hi Martin

Thanks for that, there was nothing worse than leaving a couple in the fridge for later to find that they had black spots all over them, so I will definetly try bleeding them first, I was blaming the water as it did improve by using the salt water they came from

It.s good to know the crays are in

Ron

PS: As a kid I always wanted to be a cray fisherman as I lived in Geraldton at the time
PSS: I found that crays like a toy as I had a sinew like bait in the pot and it had leaked into the main area and the pot was absolutely loaded but you are not allowedto use bovine material any more so I used big fish heads hung inside the pot and that seemed the best

this fellow i was going with was using  kangaroo tail told him never to put it in my pots, I know a lot swear by them or road kill but even if it works it absolutely stinks to high hell and taints the cray meat with a horrid flavor IMO, and you  also stink for days, no thanks.
the crays are in close at the moment but getting ready to move any day now. as soon as the shells harden they are off. whites in the sand, then later reds on top.
PS, i remove all legs b4 freezing as they always shrivel up and are best fresh anyway, and cook b4 freezing.

we got back an hr ago with another 9 crays. speaking to the old fishermen about the time to cook. they spoke a lot about the enzymes in crays and that if you want them to keep in the freezer then cook for 14 to 16 mins as you need to destroy all the enzymes else they will start to break down the flesh and you end up with soft floury meat, if you are eating fresh then 10 to 12 if good. if you are pickling then 6 to 8 mins and pickle for 15 min. all times are back to boil and plus or minus 2 mins for size. I have cooked like this for years as shown by my father in law and for boiling seems to be spot on. although I do like the pickled or BBQ /grill halves soaked in butter ETC...
Martin

Damn, I'm gunna have to get out of my flu bed and get some bait for these bloody craypots, aint I !!!!!!!

Ron

up at 4am every morning last week, same this week whilst they are running and to get good numbers for Xmas. running out of bait but lol.

Just getting back into it Martin, slat pots have been soaking a few days baited them yesterday so we'll see how we go in the morning.
We used to drown them, remove the feelers, slice them long ways, clean out the muck and drizzle a bit of olive oil and garlic, put the two halves back together and wrap them up in Alfoil and freeze.
Barbie time thaw and drop them on the hot plate still wrapped in the foil and keep turning every few minutes for about 15 mins.

yeah good onyas--I'll stick with me vegemite sandwiches--I hate diving for crays so chances of me getting any are pretty remote.

regards
oneday

need to get ya finger out Ron, dont want to miss the run, you could walk on floats at the moment in some spots, lol.
going to do the bbq thing next week Peter, meeting up with the family for the xmas BBQ. good luck with your first pull, they have been running well and a new pot we put in caught on the first pull.
had a a whole crayfish or a cray sambo for breaky and cray legs for lunch every day since starting Ray, havnt opened the Vegemite jar for a while now   I dont dive for them, too many bities around during cray season with all the bait in the water, a mate seen a huge Tiger shark a few days ago just cruising a mile off shore.