LOBSTER & CRAYFISH HANDY HINTS
Why drown crays?
Dropping live crays into boiling water causes crays to throw off their legs and it
seems to be a painful death. It is kinder to drown crays in fresh water first for
about 10 minutes (until the crays stop moving). The legs should stay on when boiled.

Crays may be cooked in either sea water or salty water. Some people add sugar.

An easy way to remove the string from a raw cray. Break off a feeler, then break off the skinny end and discard. Insert the narrow end of your feeler into the crays rear end, 2 inches or more then pull it back. The barbs on the feeler will dig into the string and bring it out with the feeler.

Cooking time is to your own liking. The essential thing is DO NOT OVERCOOK or the flesh will become dry or stringy. Once the water has come back to the boil, cooking times vary from 5 to 10 minutes.

Remove crays from the water. Break all four feelers off and drain with head down and tails hanging over the edge of a bucket or boiling pot.

One of the best ways to eat crays is to eat them freshly cooked, while still hot with salt and pepper.

When removing flesh from cray, twist the tail and gently pull it away from the head to retain most flesh. Crush the sides of the tail together to split the underside, then peel shell off. Once the shell has been taken off the tail, (starting at the top of the tail) peel back the top section to expose the string. Remove then cut the tail into halves.

To cut a cray tail in half, first place tail underside down on a board. With a sharp knife start at the tail end, cut the tail in half with a guillotine action.

JOE’S CRAYS
Drown crays. Put pot of water onto boil, add 2 tbspn salt, 1 tbspn brown sugar
and ½ to 1 tspn of oil. Cook for 5 minutes when water comes to the boil.
It keeps the crays sweet!.

CRAY MEDALLIONS
Remove string before cooking using the cray feeler method. Shell tail. Slice crossways. This is another way of presentation to use with your favourite salad or sauce.

CRAYFISH IN BATTER
Make a batter as for fish.
Cut tails in half and batter them.
Fry in half inch of clean oil on both sides.
Serve with salad.

You can e-mail us with any thoughts or queries at mulataga@nettrek.com.au