Louisiana Crawfish: A Succulent History of the Cajun Crustacean

by Arcadia Publishing

Overview

The hunt for red crawfish is the thing, the raison d'etre, of Acadian spring. Introduced to Louisiana by the swamp dwellers of the Atchafalaya Basin, the crawfish is a regional favorite that has spurred a $210 million industry. Whole families work at the same fisheries, and annual crawfish festivals dominate the social calendar. More importantly, no matter the occasion, folks take their boils seriously: they'll endure line cutters, heat and humidity, mosquitoes and high gas prices to procure crawfish for their families' annual backyard boils or their corporate picnics. Join author Sam Irwin as he tells the story—complete with recipes and tall tales—of Louisiana's favorite crustacean: the crawfish.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626192362
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	02/18/2014
Series:	American Palate
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	1,103,597
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Sam Irwin is a freelance photojournalist living in Baton Rouge. He is a native of Breaux Bridge, the Crawfish Capital of the World, and spent much of his childhood in Henderson, Louisiana at Amy's Fisheries, his grandfather's fish and crawfish market. Sam is the former press secretary of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry and a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He has also been a history teacher, a Cajun music dancehall operator and the owner of a record store. Marcelle Bienvenu is an instructor at the John Folse Culinary Institute and author of the Times Picayune column Cooking Creole. She is the author of four cookbooks and co-author of more, including four cookbooks with Emeril Lagasse. With Judy Walker, she acted as co-editor on the James Beard nominated Cooking up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from the Times-Picayune. She provided the recipes for True Blood: Eats, Drinks and Bites from Bon Temps, a companion cookbook to HBO's True Blood.

Table of Contents

Foreword Marcelle Bienvenu 9

Acknowledgements 13

1 The Cajun Crustacean 15

2 When Life Gives You Crawfish, Make Étouffee 31

3 The Crawfish Capital of the World 41

4 Eternal King Crawfish 65

5 Why Did the Crawfish Cross the Road? 75

6 Festival Turmoil 83

7 Crawfish Ranching 105

8 That Pesky Supply-and-Demand Thing 129

Notes 139

Index 155

About the Author 159