Crawfish Garnishing

Whole crawfish are sometimes used combined with other garnishings, but they are considered more as decorations than otherwise; in any case they must first be cooked in a court-bouillon (No. 38), and the shells removed from the tails, without detaching the meat from the bodies, or leave the shells on.

How to Cook Them.—Wash the crawfish, changing the water several times during the operation; suppress the small vein found in the middle underneath the fins, at the tail end then lay the fish in a saucepan, and season with salt, mignonette, vinegar, or white wine, sliced onions, branches of parsley, thyme, and bay leaf. When they are cooked, break off the small side claws, and remove the shell or not as desired. They can now be trussed as shown in Fig. 506, for skewers. The crawfish tails after being picked out of their shells, are used as garnishings, sauteing them in butter and seasoning with salt, pepper, fine herbs and fish glaze (No. 399). The body shells stuffed with forcemeat (No. 90) are used for soups.