Crayfish

[AJB]

Hello

I’ve been doing a search both here and with Google on American Crayfish, and although I’ve found a lot of information, I’ve not really found a definitive…

Yes you can eat the American ones,
This is when you should catch ‘em
This is how you catch ‘em
And
This is how you cook ‘em

Anyone got any easily postable info – I don’t want to give anyone a job.

Ta

AJB

 

[scanker]

Did you see this thread? http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=8898
There's links to Defra and River Cottage in a post I made, where there's lots of info.

 

[TimB]

Hi,

I've done some looking into this over the past year too.....
Yep, you most certainly can eat them... don't eat the smaller native white claw ones as they are protected...

You can catch them through most of the year, although during the winter they tent to stay in the burrows (in the river bank)
This time of year is good, with them being more active and feeding more!

The how is the tricky bit, it depends on where in the country you are as their 'infestation differs between areas'

Trapping.... You can trap them, but to do this you need a free licence (check the Enviromnet Agency website for this) Traps can easily and cheaply be bough from ebay.. or even made from close weve chicken wire...

Line and Hook... You can do this providing you have a rod licence

You will also need to ensure that you can fish for them on the particyular water... if you contact a local angling club they will probably give you permission as anglers hate the little (or sometimes big) blighters!

Cooking and prepping...
The best way to do this is to leave them in fresh water for 24hrs. Put a handfull of oats in there and they will clean them selves out.
The humane way to kill them is to put them into the freezer till they have died then into the hot water... Add some olive oil and a clove of garlic for some flavour.
Eat the tails and claws...

Hope this helps!

Tim

 

[AJB]

Tim – exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you very much

AJB