These Are The Ideal Months To Host A High-Quality Crawfish Boil

If you need an excuse to get friends together, or if you've got an event happening and need a unique idea, think about hosting a crawfish boil. The ultimate one-pot party food, you can feed a crowd or a more intimate group around a newspaper lined table while everyone chats and has fun eating with their hands. According to Johnnie Gale, corporate chef for Guidry's Catfish and Ocean Select Seafood, the perfect time to get your crawfish in the pot is anywhere from January to July. However, she also adds, "Here in Louisiana, we start seeing crawfish around Thanksgiving and are wishing for Santa to bring us some for Christmas." 

Although you can buy frozen crawfish tails all year online, don't miss the chance to buy live Louisiana crawfish from one of the thousands of farms and commercial fishermen who catch wild harvest during the season. Chef Gale states that the harvest brings in an amazing 110 million pounds of mudbugs each year in Louisiana.

Crawfish are freshwater dwellers, living in ponds and rivers and even rice paddies around the South. When conditions are too cold, or their habitats dry up, they can burrow into the mud to wait until better weather, hence the name mudbug. As the temperatures begin to climb, so do the crawfish, wandering out of hiding, where they start feeding and getting plump and meaty again, perfect for the boiling pot. So, by late January, quality crawfish begin to be more plentiful, and the farms and commercial fishers are ready to ship them out for consumers and restaurants all over the United States. By July, the fresh supply begins to dwindle, and it's time to wait for the end of winter once again.

If you've decided to host a boil, there are a few etiquette tips to know — including showing your guests how to eat those mudbugs like a pro, and providing plenty of cold beverages, but the most important is getting the best quality crawfish you can source. Keeping an eye on the season will help ensure your boil is a hit.