Tips for getting Crayfish on your menu

Crayfish are delicious freshwater crustaceans that resemble a small lobster in appearance. When it comes to taste, crayfish tails have sweet and succulent meat which has a prawn-like texture. This similarity to prawns makes is a popular substitute for prawns, as well as being used commonly in pasta dishes and salads. 

If you are looking to get crayfish on your menu, these are our 3 top tips to help. 

1. Pair it with linguine for an unbeatable pasta dish

Crayfish linguine is a fail-safe option that can be prepared quickly and easily, and most importantly - tastes great. Simply cook up the crayfish with some garlic, white wine and maybe some wild mushrooms and you’re on to a real winner. 

For slightly more out of the box uses of crayfish, consider swapping them out with dishes commonly served with prawns such as Asian food or salads to create a distinctly different dish that is still similar enough to be popular with your customers. 

2. Learn how to cook Crayfish properly

Crayfish are smaller and easier to prepare than lobsters, but still require some technique to make sure they are at their succulent best. Depending on how your Crayfish is purchased (whole crayfish can be available frozen, as well as fresh, and you can also purchase fresh cooked tail meat already prepared), your preparation time will be very different. At M&J Seafood, we mostly prepare Crayfish as IQF tail meat or chilled in Brine making it easier to cook with.

If cooking live crayfish, the easiest way to cook them is to place them into a pan of boiling water and leave to boil for 2 to 5 minutes. The crayfish will turn bright red indicating they are cooked. 

You can serve the crayfish whole, but if you want to include the meat only, twist off the tail, remove the appendages and crack the shell to extract the meat. 

3. Source your crayfish responsibly

There are many different species of crayfish and many are overfished, or have smaller populations due to environmental damage. Though European crayfish are almost extinct, there are other species that are successfully farmed around the world. 

Before you look for a source for crayfish it is important to make sure that they source from responsible sources. 

Find out where we source our seafood from.

Order Crayfish for your restaurant

If you are looking to order crayfish for your restaurant, give your local M&J branch a call! For any other questions or enquiries, get in touch on 01296 610600 or email us at enquiries@mjseafoods.co.uk