Mushy crayfish
Submitted by paulbazza on Thu, 2015-02-19 07:47
Just after some tips on cooking crays.
I freeze my crays green, wrapped in paper and glad wrap.
Once thawed in the fridge, i cut in half, and cook flesh side up on the bbq with garlic butter.
I have found the frozen crays seem to be a little mushy once cooked this way, compared to fresh which are nice and firm.
anyone have any tips for cooking crays after frozen, am i cooking to long/short?
Thanks, still getting a few crays in close out from rockingham, pulling pots every few days.
Rob H
Posts: 5745
Date Joined: 18/01/12
I do similar but start with
I do similar but start with the flesh side down to get those little crispy bits then flip over add butter ginger garlic into the shell and leave for a while.
It seems to take a very long time to cook shell down due to little contact.
No problem with freezing and thawing for me?
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Ben85
Posts: 442
Date Joined: 20/11/11
make sure they are thawed
make sure they are thawed all the way through to just about room temperature. Ive also been freezing them upside down (head down) so the shit doesnt run through the tail.
Auslobster
Posts: 1901
Date Joined: 03/05/08
I BBQ the same way...
...shell side down the whole time, but have only done it with fresh ones; maybe freezing them causes moisture build-up, which doesn't have a chance to drain out?
Maybe thaw them to room temp as said above, flesh side down on a paper towel, or a rack?
Deleted
Posts: 6265
Date Joined: 26/04/14
Definitely flesh side down
Definitely flesh side down first good amount of fire doesn't hurt
gav1970
Posts: 154
Date Joined: 12/02/07
Interesting read here
Interesting read here http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Food-and-Agriculture/seafoods/Frozen-seafood-and-freezing-your-own.aspx#a1
From what I understand (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) the quality will be affected if the freezer doesn't freeze the meat fast enough as water molecules will form and degrade the quality of the meat.
Just thinking out loud but maybe try freezing a couple in friend's freezers to see if there's a noticable change in quality.
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paulbazza
Posts: 153
Date Joined: 24/11/10
next trial
Thanks for the replies, next time i cook some crays:
-let them come to room temp before cooking, leave flesh side down on some paper.
-cook for the first minute flesh side down.
i will report the outcome soon :)
paulbazza
Posts: 153
Date Joined: 24/11/10
Popcorn !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found the recipe on FW for popcorn crayfish, tried once and been cooking like this ever since.
Popcorn crayfish with a cold Swan Draught, no wonder my brother is always at my place !!!!!!!
Also been doing my herring and skippy fillets the same :)
roberta
Posts: 2773
Date Joined: 08/07/08
I know when old
fart was cray fishing and we'd get a few in the cray pot. Not knowing, we'd cook them, cool down then freeze for later eating.
On eating one of them later, it was mushy. His old mate said that maybe a occie got in the cray pot, scared the shite out of the cray. This can make them mushy also and taste a bit off. The only thing we can think of as their wasn''t any skeletons left in the cray pot when he pulled it.
We've frozen most of our crays cooked or raw (legs off raw as they will dry out) old fart cooked the cray legs seperate and ate them
Just a thought.
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