Straight Tail Crawfish? LSU Ag Center Debunks Myth

The best crawfish are found here in Louisiana and are the best in the world. Wild-caught crawfish, from the Atchafalaya Basin area, are still the cornerstone of the state's thriving industry. Louisiana crawfish farmers are harvesting anywhere from 100 to 120 million pounds of crawfish per year, these aren't rookie numbers, we love some crawfish any day that ends with a y in Louisiana. In fact, during crawfish season we the people of Louisiana believe that you should be allowed to have crawfish as many times a week as your bank account will allow it.

Have You Ever Been Told Not to Eat a Crawfish With a Straight Tail?

I will forever remember the first time I tried this wonderful Louisiana delicacy, I was given strict instructions, "Suck the head and throw out any crawfish with straight tails because that means they were dead and the meat is bad" I never questioned those two instructions because why would I? We have all been told to only eat the crawfish that have tails that are curled. The long-held theory is that cooked crawfish with straight tails were dead before cooking, so, you don't eat them.

LSU Ag Center Researchers Turned Myth Busters For Crawfish Lovers

Researchers at Louisiana State University's Agriculture Center decided to put the Cajun tale to the test. Ag Center researchers put dead crawfish into a cooler with living ones for five days, then boiled them. The result will have your cajun grandma claiming the research was rigged, get ready for this, the tails of the dead crawfish curled just like the living ones. All I can think about is how I threw away so many good crawfish over the year because of a Cajun myth. Go ahead, eat that strait-tailed crawfish. You can read the entire myth-busted research piece by clicking here.