November 27, 2023 • 38 mins
Crayfish (aka crawfish or crawdads) are arguably the tastiest li'l Lovecraftian horrors around. In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren dig into the history and seriously strange science behind these curious crustaceans.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Reese and I'm more in Vocal Bomb, and
today we have an episode for you. We have a
classic episode for you about crayfish, yes, or crapfish or
whatever else you want to call them, so many different
names people like to call these things.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, was there any reason this was on your mind, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Nope, nope, nope. I was just looking through the archives
for something interesting and remembered having such a heck and
good time recording this episode back in May of twenty eighteen.
And indeed it's a really fun one. So I was like, yeah, yeah,
let's talk. Let's let's return to crayfish.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's return to crayfish. As I discussed in this episode,
I do associate it with hanging out with people, which
the holidays are extensibly about. Normally it's more of a
springtime thing, but it is like a kind of a
communal in my experience. It's usually like you pour the
big thing out and then we all try to crack
(01:11):
them open some more successfully.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. I mean, like I write,
the first time that I ever had them was at
like a big Southern boil where you yeah, you cook
a bunch of potatoes and corn and sausage and crayfish
and various seasonings in a big ol pot and then
you just dump it all out on newspaper on a
picnic table and then everyone just kind of like grabs
what they want and yeah, yeah, yeah, it's lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And I will also say that I really enjoyed googling
for any updates on this subject, because the results are
this amazing mix of like notices of new spottings of
invasive species in various places, potential spottings of entirely new
species in various places, and in Colorado, a lift on
an apparently long ignored band on importing crayfish from the
(02:06):
Gulf for fear that they would become invasive.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, okay, so a lot of different a lot of
different things going on in the world of grapefish. Got it?
Got it? I do need to do need to go
get some? I yeah, yep, yes, yeah, Actually I should
ask my friends about where she gets hers, because I
(02:33):
would love to make like a like gumbo situation. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I think I think the last time, the last time
that I had some, I had some in some like
like kind of like vaguely Cajun style fried rice.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
M that sounds good. Yeah, well, I guess we shouldn't
let past Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello, and
(03:08):
welcome to food Stuff. I'm Annie Rays.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And I'm Louren Vocal Bomb, and today we're doing another.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Seafood related episode.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It's about a crustacean.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
It is the Crawfish, and I have a theme song.
I'm gonna hum and I want you to try and
guess what it is. And I think you'll be able
to do it. Okay, do doo doo doo doo. Jurassic Park,
have you all got it? I know my humming is
a well some have said it's off key, but uh,
(03:43):
this episode made me think so much of Jurassic Park.
And it's finally time to talk about cloning. Cloning, yes,
because life finds a way. And let's hope this isn't
an attack of the Clone situation.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Oh hopefully not.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
We've talked.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I mean, you've talked about clouding before with with Clone Annie.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You know about Clone and Annie.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I mean I listened to the episode. Oh no, I
mean she disappeared before I got into the studio.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But she totally exists. I don't know. I haven't seen
it in a while. Yeah, I'm hoping she'll check in soon.
I hope she's not causing any mayhem. That's all I
can say.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I was gonna say that she should she should send
in some like some like correspondent like reporting. But if
it's mayhammy correspondent reporting, I'm not sure if that's we
can talk about it later anyway. Crawfish, let's talk about
some etymology. Yeah, because because the term if you if
you google it, the more proper term is crayfish, which
(04:54):
I was surprised to learn. Crawfish is a Southern thing, right,
also also craw Yes, so you got crawfish, crayfish, and crawdad,
and they're the same thing.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Okay, In southern parts of the US, you are more
likely to hear crawfish. In the north, crayfish. Crawdad is
more of a term they use in the Western States
and particularly Oklahoma, Kansas. In Arkansas, apparently in the Mississippi Delta,
some folks call them mudbugs. Sounds so appetizing.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Etymology notes, although crawfish live in the water, that they
are crustaceans, not fish, and the fish in their name
does not come from the root word of fish, but
rather from a mispronunciation of the old Anglo French word
for the animal crevise. Crevise has its roots in German
words for crab, and at some point in the fifteen
(05:49):
hundreds enough folks misheard and mispronounced crevise is crayfish in
English that the word stuck. I'm probably not quite pronouncing
it as parallel as I should be, but if you
say it over and over again, like I did quietly
to myself at my desk the other day, you'll start
(06:09):
to see it. Yeah, okay, And eventually crayfish branched into
crawfish over the next century or so in different areas.
But yeah, around the world, there's lots of different words
for the.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Things, right, A yabbie or a cora in Australia and
folks who keep them as pets and Singapore call them
freshwater lobsters. Fair enough, makes sense. Yeah, I have a
friend that has a crawfish boil every year in the
spring and it's lovely. Oh, I love a craffish boil.
If you've never been to one, it's usually an outdoor
(06:39):
event where you gather your friends, your family. You boil
huge pots of crawfish with usually with corn, potatoes, sausage,
and some spices and seasonings. Then dump the finished product
onto newspaper covered tables, usually the fold away kind, and
you have feast away. Oh yeah, yeah, but this is
another food that I struggle very much with eating.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Oh they don't want to be I mean they resist it.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
They very much do. Usually went at this crawfish boil event,
I eat far more sausage and to crawfish. Yeah, but
local Atlanta restaurant shout out to Crawfish Shack Seafood. Yes,
according to their website, we receive shipments of fresh crawfish daily.
And there's an article in the New York Times that
(07:22):
mentions them called Vietnamese immigrants carry on a Cajun food
tradition because it's kind of a fusion.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, it's run by a Vietnamese family and they also
have some Korean items on the menu. And Atlanta seriously,
Crawfish Shack is so good. Yeah, go to there. It's
on Beauford Highway, inside the perimeter between like Shambley Tucker
and Claremont, kind of.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Right over by the CDC.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Seriously, it's a tiny hole in the wall and it's
so good.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, I've spent many a late night.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Oh yeah, yeah when I lived, when I lived closer
to there, it was it was dangerous.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
All right, all of that side. Crawfish, what is it?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Crawfish look like wee little lobsters about three to six
inches long. That's like eight to fifteen centimeters, although some
species can get bigger. They are as we've said, crustaceans,
meaning that they're animals that don't have an interior skeletal system,
but rather an exoskeleton, you know, like like bugs or
like Ripley in the movie Aliens. In the case of crawfish,
(08:26):
that exoskeleton may be brown or blue, or red or
golden or sort of modeled with all of those colors.
And they've got two main body areas. They've got the abdomen,
which is the tail part and contains mostly muscle, and
the cephalothorax, which is the torso and head part and
contains mostly organs. Okay, they have two pairs of walking
(08:50):
only legs in the back four in total, two pairs
of legs with small pinchers in the front for like
minor object manipulation and an extra walking power. And then
one pair of front legs that are capped in these
big powerful claws that they used to get stuff done. Yeah, fighting, feeding,
moving stuff around, you know, crawfish stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah yeah. And they are.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Assisted in these tasks by their one pair of eyestalks,
two pairs of antennae, and three pairs of mouth parts.
They chew their food though with a set of three
teeth called a gastric mill. Okay, And they pee through
glands located in their faces just under their antenna.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
They also have four pairs of these wee little limbs
along the undersides of their tails called swimmerets that help
with reproductive functions and also to circulate water to and
from their gills.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
These things sound wild. What is going on? Crawfordish? I
don't know, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So much, so straight I got. The more I read
about them, the more I was just giddy. It's just like,
this sounds like a terrible monster thing.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They're so tasty, And I said, I said, gills. They
will happily live their whole lives underwater. They don't need
to be above water for any particular reason. They breathe
through their gills, but they can survive in air for
a decent while as long as their gills stay stay moist.
They don't really swim, though they can push themselves backwards
(10:26):
with a sort of undercurling thrust of their long, broad
segmented tail in case of emergency, but for the most part,
they just crawl along the floor of their freshwater habitats
ponds or streams, or the shallows of rivers or lakes,
foraging for food. They're omnivores, avoiding predators, sometimes digging burrows,
and sometimes making babies. Crawfish usually reproduce sexually, usually on
(10:53):
more on that in a minute. Then the females carry
the eggs inside their bodies for a few weeks and
then outside their stuck to the underside of their tails.
The hatchlings will hang out literally still attached to the
underside of their mother's tail, for another few weeks through
a molt or two a malt a molt what molting?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So Unlike our skin and bones, which grow with us,
crawfish's exoskeletons cannot grow with them. A crawfish shell is
semi flexible but pretty solid. It's made of kiten and
reinforced with calcium carbonate that they consume in their diets
and excrete through the specialized sort of skin. When the
crawfish starts getting too big for their current shell, it'll
(11:40):
shed that exoskeleton and grow a new, bigger one for
it to grow into.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Right, and they can do this up to fifteen times,
and they generally double in size with each shed.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
They may eat their molted shells to regain the minerals
from them.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Of course, of.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Course, why not. That's good sense. Come on, it is
depending on the species. They may live anywhere from a
couple of years to several years. And in addition to
growing new shells, many crawfish will grow whole new limbs
if they lose one.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
So it's very loved, crafty, and it's a good superpower.
That is true. Around the world. There are over six
hundred species of crawfish, half of which are from the
US and Canada. In two thousand and nine, biologists discovered
a species in Tennessee that can reach the size of
a lobster. They're kind of baffled as to how no
one's ever seen it before. I who knows good burrowers?
(12:38):
They are, yes, yeah, And here's my question. Lauren, how
in the world do you eat these things? Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Man, Well, unlike some crustaceans like shrimp, crawfish shells are
too hard for humans to eat, so you got to
get them out of there.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah. A crawfish are frequently cooked whole, either boiled or roasted.
Once they're cooked through and you've taken them off the
heat and gotten them two more or less the points
that they're cool enough to touch, you crack them open.
And there are tools that can help you with this,
and you might need those to get meat out of
the claw section, or if the crawfish is kind of
on the large side and the shell is too thick
(13:16):
to manipulate. But for most American crawfish, you're just going
to use your hands to separate the two halves of
the crawfish that abdomen or tail part from that cephalothorax
or the head slash torso part. What you do is
you get you get a good grip on the tail
with one hand and the torso with your other hand,
(13:37):
and you sort of pinch down at the right of
the division in between the two sections, and the sections
are clear because the torso head is smooth and hard
with a carapace, and the tail part is segmented and
a little bit bendier, and then you just sort of bend, twist,
and pull at the same time and the two halves
(13:58):
will come apart in theory, hypothetically, once you do so.
The tail contains a sort of dense, spongy meat that
pulls apart in threads, sort of like pulled pork. But
it has a clean, slightly sweet, slightly earthy, briny, seafoody taste,
and it's pretty easy to just pull it out or
pick it out with a fork. The head, meanwhile, contains
(14:22):
a sort of soupy, spongy bit of meat that's a
little bit more savory and gamey than the tail, and
more heavily flavored. It's going to be more heavily flavored
with whatever spices you've added to your boil or your
roasting pan. To get the full experience, you both pick
out the tail meat and suck the meat out of
the torso head. It's important to suck the head.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I've heard that, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, I just have I struggle a lot oh meat,
me too.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah. That the Crappie boiled I go to every year.
I'm always the one that's just failing, and everyone else
has it down and.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
They've eaten like a billion and yes, and you've had
like two yes.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And like I barely got anything out of either of them,
and my hands are bleeding somehow.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I always cut myself. I always cut myself on the
shell edges.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's we're just the crawfish are winning against us, Laura. Yeah, though,
to be.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Fair, I didn't go to a boil until I was
like thirty, I think, so, yeah, so I've I haven't
had I'm still learning.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Okay. It's a process, it is a skill, and there's time, Lauren,
there's time.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Aside from it being difficult. Some people do not eat
crawfish because they are not kosher, and or they object
to the fact that crawfish are generally alive when they
are cooked right. There is some scientific disagreement about whether
crawfish and other crustaceans can feel pain, and therefore whether
(15:55):
it's cruel to cook them alive. The thing is, like,
they don't have brains or central nervous systems. The general
consensus is that it would be kinder to knock crustaceans
out before cooking them, either stunning them with cold or
with electric shock, or by just quickly removing or otherwise
mechanically destroying the ganglia or the nerve bundles that help
(16:19):
these crustaceans coordinate their responses to stimuli. But it is
physically impossible, as far as humans know, for crawfish and
other crustaceans to experience the negative feedback loop that we
do when we experience pain, like we have a sensation
of hurt and then the emotion of being upset about it,
(16:40):
which can intensify the sensation of hurt. That's how human
things work. They do not have that anyway, if you
do choose to eat them well.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Crawfish tails are relatively low calorie, low fat, the good
source of protein with a decent amount of calcium, iron,
phosphorus and b vitem. They are popular food during Lint
when Catholics don't eat meat. On Fridays you can find
them and a lot of Cajun or Creole cuisine like
etufe and gumbo.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You can also put their meat in anything that you
would use lobster or shrimp for and their shells and
spare bits are really good for making stock. And I
think crawfish have a bit of a reputation as being
like dirty, you know, like like ill their bottom featers right,
Maybe partially because of their flavor. Maybe it's just classism, maybe,
(17:31):
but crawfish actually have a very low tolerance for pollution.
Healthy populations of crawfish are a benchmark of water quality
in areas where they live, and they prefer to eat
living stuff to dead stuff. Though they're pretty opportunistic. They'll
eat basically whatever they can get a hold of.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Sure, I thought kind of to this point, I as
a kid, thought crawfish with crawl fish crawl fish, Oh,
as they crawl suare on the ground, and therefore they
might be dirty. Yeah, And I think we're going to
talk a little bit more about other reasons that might
be in a bit, But for now, let's look at
some numbers, crawfish numberswfish numbers. When I think of crawfish,
(18:13):
I think of Louisiana. Sure, most of the crawfish consumed
in the US, which is around ninety percent in twenty twelve,
come from Louisiana, with more than sixteen hundred farmers on
one hundred and eleven thousand acres of ponds producing one
hundred million pounds, amounting to about two hundred and ten
(18:34):
million dollars a year for the state. Farm raised crawfish
make up eighty eight percent of US commercial sales. Crawfish
season is still a big deal there, both industrially and culturally.
And I will say a quick note about those numbers.
I saw a lot of differing numbers, but all within
that range, and that was those were from the Smithsonian
(18:55):
magazine report on it.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So I'm going to hope that those were pretty pretty
on on point. Yeah, close.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Crawfish season does peak in April when the floodwaters forced
the crawfish out of their burrows, but it can go
anywhere from November to June due to crawfish farming. And
even though Louisiana crawfish you think of Louisiana, but you
can find them in Brazil, France, Spain, Portugal, Kenya, and Uganda,
among other places.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, they've been exported to be farmed to many other places.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Absolutely, And I did see a lot of these when
I was in Muhan, China, Xiaolongzia, which translates to small
dragon stamp. I saw so many people in the streets
these big buckets. Oh wow. Yeah, I never tried them,
but Oh yeah, man, I was very nervous, like I
knew I couldn't eat them in the US, and I
was like, I don't need to make a fool myself
(19:45):
in China more than I already am. They first arrived
to China in the nineteen forties. The Louisiana crawfish crawfish, yeah, yeah,
And while they are popular food stuff in the country,
they do present a problem for some of the native
fish population and important commercial plants like rice and lotus. Farmers,
knowing that the species is invasive and destructive to their
(20:08):
rice patties, may still keep a pond full of them
because they make them more money than the rice does.
And I read an an interview with one of the
farmers that does this, and he said he would prefer
he makes more money off of crawfish, and if he could,
that's all he would make his money off of. Oh wow.
As opposed to rice. Rice ponds are a great environment
for crawfish. In Louisiana, a lot of flooded rice fields
(20:29):
have been turned into crawfish ponds.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah. Or some farmers will do rice one year and
then crawfish the next, and switching back and forth.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah. And in recent years, there has been some controversy
over Chinese crawfish in American stores, appearing under names that
imply that they are from Louisiana. The Louisiana Crawfish Association
claims that Chinese crawfish are treated with an antibiotic band
here in the US, chloram finicol. A law pass in
(20:57):
the US in two thousand and eight requires that when
a paid can ask where crawfish comes from at a
Louisiana restaurant, they have to tell you. It's called colloquially
the ask before you eat law. Uh yeah, huh.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But like Annie said earlier, there are species of crawfish
native to all lots of places around the world. North
America does have the highest biodiversity of crawfish species, and
some of the most popular for eating crawfish have traditionally
been on the less popular end of the seafood industry,
but it is expected to grow globally in coming years.
(21:32):
But that is the future.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yes, let's look at the past.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Let's but first let's look at a quick break for
a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. And
we're back with history.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yes, the ancient Greeks are said to have enjoyed crawfish
along with a bunch of others shellfish, although the same
words were often used interchangeably at the time for freshwater
crawfish and saltwater lobsters of various sorts, and even sometimes
for crabs. So thanks for nothing, ancient Greeks.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah. We talked a bit about the Acadians, the ancestors
of the Cajuns that came from Canada down to Louisiana
in our Jumbalaya episode. They often get the credit for
introducing crawfish to Louisiana, but the indigenous people of the
region were certainly eating crawfish before they arrived, long before. Yeah.
They use reeds baited with a venison to catch them.
(22:37):
When the Acadians arrived around seventeen fifty five, they quickly
discovered that the swamps and bayou that they settled near
were full of these weird looking things, and thanks to
their familiarity with lobster catching in Canada and their close
proximity with the indigenous peoples of the region, it didn't
take people long for them to become for crawfish to
become a favorite among the settlers. The first own record
(23:01):
of commercial crawfish in the state dates back to eighteen
hundred twenty three four hundred pounds worth about two one
hundred and forty dollars according to this calculator I found,
that's about forty one thousand dollars in today's oh Wow money.
Although commercial sales didn't really start until the eighteen hundreds,
were coming to a close with the introduction of larger
(23:22):
nets that made harvest easier. In nineteen oh eight, with
the help of technological advances and industrialization, the number of
commercial craw fists reached eighty eight thousand pounds valued at
thirty six hundred dollars or over ninety three thousand dollars
in today's money, So that's a pretty big boost there.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Speaking of industrialization, commercial crawfish farming in man made ponds
got its start in the nineteen sixties, which really upped
the quality of crawfish production. Before then, crawfish were really
just harvested from their native environments, and this was the
first time that people were using aquaculture to farm crawfish.
(24:03):
It was partially due to interest and partially because with
the rise of mass industry, many rivers around the world
became too polluted for crawfish to survive on their own.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And from there the industry only grew and is now
the largest freshwater crustacean industry in the country. Before this innovation,
crawfish had been deemed a poor man's food. Up to
this point. For a lot of people, crawfish was the
bait you would use to catch actual quote food. But
the nineteen sixties and man made ponds changed that, and
(24:37):
of course the price rose from about five cents a
pound to about twenty five cents a pound or around
two dollars in today's money. Nineteen sixties saw the first
Barolbridge Crawfish Festival to celebrate Barolbridge being dubbed Crawfish Capital
of the World. The festival's goal was to improve the
reputation of the crawfish, and it still takes place every
(24:58):
year to this day. A court of crawfish Royalty is chosen.
The queen gets to wear this fantastic cape and wield
a scepter. I've never realized how much I want to
wield a scepter until doing these episodes. USA Today listed
it as one of the top ten food festivals in
the US, So if you.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Ever have a chance to check it out, do so?
Do so absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
A couple of years into the sixties, AJ Judas Junior,
aka the Crazy Frenchman, imported bags of crawfish from Brobridge
to his family Port Arthur's store Judases French Market. After
he opened his second store in nineteen seventy eight, he
served them there too. And the main reason I wanted
to touch on this is because in nineteen sixty three,
(25:40):
Judas introduced Texas to the sport of crawfish racing. I'll
say it again, crawfish racing. Crawfish racing, crawfish racing. A
Texas governor, no joke, appointed Judas a Texas Crawfish Racing Commissioner.
His reasoning to quote ensure that no one scrupulous characters
(26:04):
got into the crawfish racing industry in the great state
of Texas. I apologize to everyone from Texas. I'm really
bad at Southern accents and I can't differentiate.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I gave it a swing and I miss, Oh, It's
it's okay. I think I think, you know, like the
feeling was there, yeah, yeah, the passion.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Thank you, Lauren, You're welcome. Thank you. Louisiana's elected their
first Cajun governor, Edwin Edwards, in nineteen seventy two, and
his campaign slogan was Cajun Power, and the image it
commonly came with was of a clenched fist, reminiscent of
the Black Power fist, but in the fist was a crawfish.
(26:48):
Mm hmm. About a decade later, in nineteen eighty three,
Louisiana became the first state to have a state crustacean,
the crawfish.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Five other states in this our glorious Union of official
crustaceans crabs in Maryland and Oregon, shrimp and Alabama and Texas,
and lobsters in Maine. I went on a serious rabbit
hole about this. I love this stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's pretty excellent and ridiculous. With even more technological innovations
in the nineteen eighties that allowed the safe shipping of
live crawfish around the country, popularity of them drove up
even more. Paul Prudom, who we've mentioned a couple of times,
he helped introduce this ingredient to a wider audience, and
in March twenty seventeen, Louisiana Lieutenant governor Pardoned Amilie the
(27:38):
crawfish saving her from boiling at the inaugural Crawfish Pardoning,
brought to you by Zaurans. Okay, so they're going to
pardon a crawfish now allah the Turkey once a year. Yeah,
that's it's lovely, live free Emily, I said, Omile. But
I believe it's Emily.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Emil who knows, I don't French. I apologize. We have
some more crawfish science for you, but first we've got
one more quick break for a word from our sponsor,
(28:21):
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. So okay, the science
section on this one is about mutants and genetics, gonna
ry and fear bald crawfish fear.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, here's some headlines for you. From the BBC New
crayfish that doesn't need males to mate becomes all powerful.
From the AJAC who needs a man, All female mutant
crayfish taking over the world scientists say. From Science Magazine
an aquarium accident may have given this crayfish the DNA
(29:00):
take over the world. And from the Guardian shell shock
Why crayfish replicants aren't taking over? Oh my goodness. Yeah,
we need to batten down the hatches. Apparently we need
to take some crawfish slash crayfish protection. We need to
figure some things out, Lauren escape plan we do.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Maybe this is maybe this is what clone Annie is
working on.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Oh my gosh, she's probably behind this somehow.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Okay, what is actually going on here?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Okay, Well, this whole thing got started at a German
pet shop in the nineteen nineties. And I would just
like to say that that sounds exactly like how a
whole lot of harmities start and or comic books. Ooh, okay, yeah,
this is like a superhero origin story. It is or
the beginning of the end of the world. I'm not
(29:56):
comforting anyone, Nope. All right, So one of the female crayfish,
and I'm probably gonna start saying crayfish because that it's
the more popular term. That is what almost all of
these articles used. Okay, one of the female crayfish in
the aquarium, an ancestor of the sloth crayfish found in
Florida and Georgia mutate it gaining an extra pair of chromosomes,
which may or may not be the actual cause of
(30:16):
their new found ability to reproduce asexually.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, because they can reproduce asexually.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Now, yep, they can. This mutation allows them to reproduce
without males, hundreds of eggs at once. All clones and
all those offspring had the same mutation. Wow, and three
months one will multiply into two hundred or three hundred. Wow.
This species is known as the marbled crayfish. And again
it's like parasite. Parasite eve comes up again. Who knew?
(30:44):
For a while they were really popular in the pet business,
particularly in Germany, sometimes known there as the Texas crayfish,
but more commonly as of two thousand and three, marmal crebs.
But they would pretty rapidly overfill your aquarium, as you
might guess, So people were releasing them into the wild.
Oh no, yeah, were they spread? Don't do that, I
(31:06):
mean right, but then what do you do? Oh goodness,
I have a crawfish boil like every week. Oh my goodness. Yeah.
So they were released into the wild and they spread
and spread, and they threaten other wild species of crawfish.
In North America, you can buy marbled crayfish. This is
(31:27):
so strange, switching back and forth, apart from in two
states that have banned the sale of them. But you're
warned against keeping them as pets, and you can't sell
them at all in the European Union. They are a
particular problem with Madagascar since they first arrived in two
thousand and seven. There are now millions of them and
seven native species are threatened for added sci fiedness. The
(31:52):
ones found in the US are blue, like.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Bright blue, bright like blueberry blue.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, which it seems has to do with how much
they social, which is excellent because they're blue because they
have no friends, see. And another pretty great thing is
that they're often compared to Star Treks tribles.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Oh yeah, they're like spiny clawed tribles.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, if you're not familiar with Star Trek, can you
explain what triples are?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Oh, triples are these little, these little fuzzy puffballs about
maybe like the size of a softball, a little bit
oblonger than that, I suppose. And yeah, there's a whole
trouble with tribles that happens in the original Star Trek
and is then revisited on the show Deep Space nine,
where it's it's nothing but confusing kling on makeup and
(32:44):
mini skirts and tribles everywhere. Because they also they reproduce
I don't know very quickly, very quickly.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
It's never very much.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I don't think it's ever made really explicitly clear if
it's like a butting process, sure, like like Gremlin.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yes, I did see a lot of Gremlin's references. Yeah, yeah,
trials and tribulations.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Trials, right, that's the name of the Deep Space nine episode.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Right, anyway, back on track, Some scientists think the marbled
crayfish could provide some insight into the development and growth
of tumors. Oh, the DNA has been sequenced in everything,
which is a first for crayfish and any of its
close relatives. The process took years and was not easy.
(33:30):
Another mystery of the natural world that scientists are hoping
the marbled crayfish will help solve the reason why so
many animals have sex. Huh A sexual female cloning species
only make up about one in ten thousand species, and
then residing theory for that is that they don't last
that long. That maybe having sex gives you exposes you
(33:50):
to more germs.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Word well, and yeah, the different differentiation in in DNA
can yeah help give you you know, can help you
evolve and give you chances at getting a good evolution.
Rights or a good mutation rather sorry.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, and since this is a newish species, scientists are
watching pretty closely to see what's gonna happen. Ugh. Yeah.
I also read that the mutation perhaps didn't happen in
Germany at all, but in the US in nineteen ninety five,
and from there, the owner of this mutated crayfish gave
all the offspring two pet stores, some of which passed
(34:24):
them along to Europe, and then maybe the Germany story
picks up. Huh. They definitely were popular in Germany and
there's definitely a lot of references to an aquarium in Germany.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
This genuinely sounds like a Michael Crichton novel. Like I
know that we were making jokes about Jurassic Park earlier,
but like like life, life finds a way, and yeah,
like the frogs becoming yeah asexual and the huh yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
The dinosaurs are female? Are female? Yeah, but they found
out but they did. Oh and also unrelated probably probably
does anyone else remember that story from about it a
year ago of an army of crawdads. Now I'm saying
craw dads roaming the streets of New Mexico, even though
there was no source of water nearby.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Does anyone remember that I had no idea what you
were talking about, but you wrote it in the notes
and I went and looked it up and that I mean, yeah,
the news stories about it are like are like, well,
I was hanging out in my driveway and then I
noticed that a whole bunch of crawfish were strolling down
the street, and so I started putting them in buckets
(35:29):
and putting them in the local like drainage ditch so
that they wouldn't dry out.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I mean, it was just like, like, no one knows
why all these crawfish were just like down the road,
but they were.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Perhaps we should be taking them a little more seriously,
That's all I can say. Oh, man, well that is
our crawfish episode. And it was so fun to research.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Oh yeah, it also made me really excited to do
a lobster episode, because lobsters are similar but different enough
that they're super fascinating. And yeah, I guess if crawfish
is a kind of regionalized term, how many people were like, oh,
it's crayfish the whole time.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Oh yeah, sorry about it, folks.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, I wasn't really like I said, it wasn't really
introduced to them until I came to Atlanta, and so therefore,
even though I'm from South Florida and the North, I
picked up the word crawfish because that's what everyone.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Here calls them.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, at least I haven't like southernized enough to the
point that I'm.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Like crawl daddies. Yet not yet.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
There's always time.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
There's always time, and that, as you learn, once you
say crawdaddies, that's when you have the method of eating
them down. That's the natural progression.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
It's the evolution of language.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yes, yes, perfect. Oh. We look forward to that day.
We do. And that brings us to the end of
this class episode. We hope that you enjoyed it as
much as we loved revisiting it. As always, whatever you're celebrating,
we hope that you're safe, happy, and we love hearing
from you about the foods that you eat. I remember
(37:13):
that you cook and eat because I remember specifically people
have sent in their menus and I love how all
across the board they are oh yeah, oh absolutely, my
mom she's fine, but she had COVID and so we're
doing a much like lower key okay thing. This year,
and we're making some seafood based situations that I'm very
(37:36):
excited about. But yeah, I do love hearing, especially like
stuff like friends giving where it's just like everyone shows up.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
With something something and you're kind of like and you're
kind of like you eat this, like this is your tradition,
Like what is that like?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
So wonderful? Yeah, I love it and I can see
Crayfish being involved in something like that, So please let
us know. We do love hearing about that and about
how all of you are doing. If you would like
to send us something you can.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
You can email us at hello at saverpod dot com,
and we're also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Save is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
(38:29):
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Reese and I'm more in Vocal Bomb, and
today we have an episode for you. We have a
classic episode for you about crayfish, yes, or crapfish or
whatever else you want to call them, so many different
names people like to call these things.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, was there any reason this was on your mind, Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Nope, nope, nope. I was just looking through the archives
for something interesting and remembered having such a heck and
good time recording this episode back in May of twenty eighteen.
And indeed it's a really fun one. So I was like, yeah, yeah,
let's talk. Let's let's return to crayfish.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's return to crayfish. As I discussed in this episode,
I do associate it with hanging out with people, which
the holidays are extensibly about. Normally it's more of a
springtime thing, but it is like a kind of a
communal in my experience. It's usually like you pour the
big thing out and then we all try to crack
(01:11):
them open some more successfully.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. I mean, like I write,
the first time that I ever had them was at
like a big Southern boil where you yeah, you cook
a bunch of potatoes and corn and sausage and crayfish
and various seasonings in a big ol pot and then
you just dump it all out on newspaper on a
picnic table and then everyone just kind of like grabs
what they want and yeah, yeah, yeah, it's lovely.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And I will also say that I really enjoyed googling
for any updates on this subject, because the results are
this amazing mix of like notices of new spottings of
invasive species in various places, potential spottings of entirely new
species in various places, and in Colorado, a lift on
an apparently long ignored band on importing crayfish from the
(02:06):
Gulf for fear that they would become invasive.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, okay, so a lot of different a lot of
different things going on in the world of grapefish. Got it?
Got it? I do need to do need to go
get some? I yeah, yep, yes, yeah, Actually I should
ask my friends about where she gets hers, because I
(02:33):
would love to make like a like gumbo situation. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I think I think the last time, the last time
that I had some, I had some in some like
like kind of like vaguely Cajun style fried rice.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
M that sounds good. Yeah, well, I guess we shouldn't
let past Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello, and
(03:08):
welcome to food Stuff. I'm Annie Rays.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And I'm Louren Vocal Bomb, and today we're doing another.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Seafood related episode.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It's about a crustacean.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
It is the Crawfish, and I have a theme song.
I'm gonna hum and I want you to try and
guess what it is. And I think you'll be able
to do it. Okay, do doo doo doo doo. Jurassic Park,
have you all got it? I know my humming is
a well some have said it's off key, but uh,
(03:43):
this episode made me think so much of Jurassic Park.
And it's finally time to talk about cloning. Cloning, yes,
because life finds a way. And let's hope this isn't
an attack of the Clone situation.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Oh hopefully not.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
We've talked.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I mean, you've talked about clouding before with with Clone Annie.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You know about Clone and Annie.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I mean I listened to the episode. Oh no, I
mean she disappeared before I got into the studio.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But she totally exists. I don't know. I haven't seen
it in a while. Yeah, I'm hoping she'll check in soon.
I hope she's not causing any mayhem. That's all I
can say.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I was gonna say that she should she should send
in some like some like correspondent like reporting. But if
it's mayhammy correspondent reporting, I'm not sure if that's we
can talk about it later anyway. Crawfish, let's talk about
some etymology. Yeah, because because the term if you if
you google it, the more proper term is crayfish, which
(04:54):
I was surprised to learn. Crawfish is a Southern thing, right,
also also craw Yes, so you got crawfish, crayfish, and crawdad,
and they're the same thing.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Okay, In southern parts of the US, you are more
likely to hear crawfish. In the north, crayfish. Crawdad is
more of a term they use in the Western States
and particularly Oklahoma, Kansas. In Arkansas, apparently in the Mississippi Delta,
some folks call them mudbugs. Sounds so appetizing.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Etymology notes, although crawfish live in the water, that they
are crustaceans, not fish, and the fish in their name
does not come from the root word of fish, but
rather from a mispronunciation of the old Anglo French word
for the animal crevise. Crevise has its roots in German
words for crab, and at some point in the fifteen
(05:49):
hundreds enough folks misheard and mispronounced crevise is crayfish in
English that the word stuck. I'm probably not quite pronouncing
it as parallel as I should be, but if you
say it over and over again, like I did quietly
to myself at my desk the other day, you'll start
(06:09):
to see it. Yeah, okay, And eventually crayfish branched into
crawfish over the next century or so in different areas.
But yeah, around the world, there's lots of different words
for the.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Things, right, A yabbie or a cora in Australia and
folks who keep them as pets and Singapore call them
freshwater lobsters. Fair enough, makes sense. Yeah, I have a
friend that has a crawfish boil every year in the
spring and it's lovely. Oh, I love a craffish boil.
If you've never been to one, it's usually an outdoor
(06:39):
event where you gather your friends, your family. You boil
huge pots of crawfish with usually with corn, potatoes, sausage,
and some spices and seasonings. Then dump the finished product
onto newspaper covered tables, usually the fold away kind, and
you have feast away. Oh yeah, yeah, but this is
another food that I struggle very much with eating.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Oh they don't want to be I mean they resist it.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
They very much do. Usually went at this crawfish boil event,
I eat far more sausage and to crawfish. Yeah, but
local Atlanta restaurant shout out to Crawfish Shack Seafood. Yes,
according to their website, we receive shipments of fresh crawfish daily.
And there's an article in the New York Times that
(07:22):
mentions them called Vietnamese immigrants carry on a Cajun food
tradition because it's kind of a fusion.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, it's run by a Vietnamese family and they also
have some Korean items on the menu. And Atlanta seriously,
Crawfish Shack is so good. Yeah, go to there. It's
on Beauford Highway, inside the perimeter between like Shambley Tucker
and Claremont, kind of.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Right over by the CDC.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Seriously, it's a tiny hole in the wall and it's
so good.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, I've spent many a late night.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Oh yeah, yeah when I lived, when I lived closer
to there, it was it was dangerous.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
All right, all of that side. Crawfish, what is it?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Crawfish look like wee little lobsters about three to six
inches long. That's like eight to fifteen centimeters, although some
species can get bigger. They are as we've said, crustaceans,
meaning that they're animals that don't have an interior skeletal system,
but rather an exoskeleton, you know, like like bugs or
like Ripley in the movie Aliens. In the case of crawfish,
(08:26):
that exoskeleton may be brown or blue, or red or
golden or sort of modeled with all of those colors.
And they've got two main body areas. They've got the abdomen,
which is the tail part and contains mostly muscle, and
the cephalothorax, which is the torso and head part and
contains mostly organs. Okay, they have two pairs of walking
(08:50):
only legs in the back four in total, two pairs
of legs with small pinchers in the front for like
minor object manipulation and an extra walking power. And then
one pair of front legs that are capped in these
big powerful claws that they used to get stuff done. Yeah, fighting, feeding,
moving stuff around, you know, crawfish stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah yeah. And they are.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Assisted in these tasks by their one pair of eyestalks,
two pairs of antennae, and three pairs of mouth parts.
They chew their food though with a set of three
teeth called a gastric mill. Okay, And they pee through
glands located in their faces just under their antenna.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
They also have four pairs of these wee little limbs
along the undersides of their tails called swimmerets that help
with reproductive functions and also to circulate water to and
from their gills.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
These things sound wild. What is going on? Crawfordish? I
don't know, but I love it.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So much, so straight I got. The more I read
about them, the more I was just giddy. It's just like,
this sounds like a terrible monster thing.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They're so tasty, And I said, I said, gills. They
will happily live their whole lives underwater. They don't need
to be above water for any particular reason. They breathe
through their gills, but they can survive in air for
a decent while as long as their gills stay stay moist.
They don't really swim, though they can push themselves backwards
(10:26):
with a sort of undercurling thrust of their long, broad
segmented tail in case of emergency, but for the most part,
they just crawl along the floor of their freshwater habitats
ponds or streams, or the shallows of rivers or lakes,
foraging for food. They're omnivores, avoiding predators, sometimes digging burrows,
and sometimes making babies. Crawfish usually reproduce sexually, usually on
(10:53):
more on that in a minute. Then the females carry
the eggs inside their bodies for a few weeks and
then outside their stuck to the underside of their tails.
The hatchlings will hang out literally still attached to the
underside of their mother's tail, for another few weeks through
a molt or two a malt a molt what molting?
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
So Unlike our skin and bones, which grow with us,
crawfish's exoskeletons cannot grow with them. A crawfish shell is
semi flexible but pretty solid. It's made of kiten and
reinforced with calcium carbonate that they consume in their diets
and excrete through the specialized sort of skin. When the
crawfish starts getting too big for their current shell, it'll
(11:40):
shed that exoskeleton and grow a new, bigger one for
it to grow into.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Right, and they can do this up to fifteen times,
and they generally double in size with each shed.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
They may eat their molted shells to regain the minerals
from them.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Of course, of.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Course, why not. That's good sense. Come on, it is
depending on the species. They may live anywhere from a
couple of years to several years. And in addition to
growing new shells, many crawfish will grow whole new limbs
if they lose one.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
So it's very loved, crafty, and it's a good superpower.
That is true. Around the world. There are over six
hundred species of crawfish, half of which are from the
US and Canada. In two thousand and nine, biologists discovered
a species in Tennessee that can reach the size of
a lobster. They're kind of baffled as to how no
one's ever seen it before. I who knows good burrowers?
(12:38):
They are, yes, yeah, And here's my question. Lauren, how
in the world do you eat these things? Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Man, Well, unlike some crustaceans like shrimp, crawfish shells are
too hard for humans to eat, so you got to
get them out of there.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Yeah. A crawfish are frequently cooked whole, either boiled or roasted.
Once they're cooked through and you've taken them off the
heat and gotten them two more or less the points
that they're cool enough to touch, you crack them open.
And there are tools that can help you with this,
and you might need those to get meat out of
the claw section, or if the crawfish is kind of
on the large side and the shell is too thick
(13:16):
to manipulate. But for most American crawfish, you're just going
to use your hands to separate the two halves of
the crawfish that abdomen or tail part from that cephalothorax
or the head slash torso part. What you do is
you get you get a good grip on the tail
with one hand and the torso with your other hand,
(13:37):
and you sort of pinch down at the right of
the division in between the two sections, and the sections
are clear because the torso head is smooth and hard
with a carapace, and the tail part is segmented and
a little bit bendier, and then you just sort of bend, twist,
and pull at the same time and the two halves
(13:58):
will come apart in theory, hypothetically, once you do so.
The tail contains a sort of dense, spongy meat that
pulls apart in threads, sort of like pulled pork. But
it has a clean, slightly sweet, slightly earthy, briny, seafoody taste,
and it's pretty easy to just pull it out or
pick it out with a fork. The head, meanwhile, contains
(14:22):
a sort of soupy, spongy bit of meat that's a
little bit more savory and gamey than the tail, and
more heavily flavored. It's going to be more heavily flavored
with whatever spices you've added to your boil or your
roasting pan. To get the full experience, you both pick
out the tail meat and suck the meat out of
the torso head. It's important to suck the head.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I've heard that, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, I just have I struggle a lot oh meat,
me too.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah. That the Crappie boiled I go to every year.
I'm always the one that's just failing, and everyone else
has it down and.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
They've eaten like a billion and yes, and you've had
like two yes.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And like I barely got anything out of either of them,
and my hands are bleeding somehow.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I always cut myself. I always cut myself on the
shell edges.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's we're just the crawfish are winning against us, Laura. Yeah, though,
to be.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Fair, I didn't go to a boil until I was
like thirty, I think, so, yeah, so I've I haven't
had I'm still learning.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Okay. It's a process, it is a skill, and there's time, Lauren,
there's time.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Aside from it being difficult. Some people do not eat
crawfish because they are not kosher, and or they object
to the fact that crawfish are generally alive when they
are cooked right. There is some scientific disagreement about whether
crawfish and other crustaceans can feel pain, and therefore whether
(15:55):
it's cruel to cook them alive. The thing is, like,
they don't have brains or central nervous systems. The general
consensus is that it would be kinder to knock crustaceans
out before cooking them, either stunning them with cold or
with electric shock, or by just quickly removing or otherwise
mechanically destroying the ganglia or the nerve bundles that help
(16:19):
these crustaceans coordinate their responses to stimuli. But it is
physically impossible, as far as humans know, for crawfish and
other crustaceans to experience the negative feedback loop that we
do when we experience pain, like we have a sensation
of hurt and then the emotion of being upset about it,
(16:40):
which can intensify the sensation of hurt. That's how human
things work. They do not have that anyway, if you
do choose to eat them well.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Crawfish tails are relatively low calorie, low fat, the good
source of protein with a decent amount of calcium, iron,
phosphorus and b vitem. They are popular food during Lint
when Catholics don't eat meat. On Fridays you can find
them and a lot of Cajun or Creole cuisine like
etufe and gumbo.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You can also put their meat in anything that you
would use lobster or shrimp for and their shells and
spare bits are really good for making stock. And I
think crawfish have a bit of a reputation as being
like dirty, you know, like like ill their bottom featers right,
Maybe partially because of their flavor. Maybe it's just classism, maybe,
(17:31):
but crawfish actually have a very low tolerance for pollution.
Healthy populations of crawfish are a benchmark of water quality
in areas where they live, and they prefer to eat
living stuff to dead stuff. Though they're pretty opportunistic. They'll
eat basically whatever they can get a hold of.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Sure, I thought kind of to this point, I as
a kid, thought crawfish with crawl fish crawl fish, Oh,
as they crawl suare on the ground, and therefore they
might be dirty. Yeah, And I think we're going to
talk a little bit more about other reasons that might
be in a bit, But for now, let's look at
some numbers, crawfish numberswfish numbers. When I think of crawfish,
(18:13):
I think of Louisiana. Sure, most of the crawfish consumed
in the US, which is around ninety percent in twenty twelve,
come from Louisiana, with more than sixteen hundred farmers on
one hundred and eleven thousand acres of ponds producing one
hundred million pounds, amounting to about two hundred and ten
(18:34):
million dollars a year for the state. Farm raised crawfish
make up eighty eight percent of US commercial sales. Crawfish
season is still a big deal there, both industrially and culturally.
And I will say a quick note about those numbers.
I saw a lot of differing numbers, but all within
that range, and that was those were from the Smithsonian
(18:55):
magazine report on it.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So I'm going to hope that those were pretty pretty
on on point. Yeah, close.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Crawfish season does peak in April when the floodwaters forced
the crawfish out of their burrows, but it can go
anywhere from November to June due to crawfish farming. And
even though Louisiana crawfish you think of Louisiana, but you
can find them in Brazil, France, Spain, Portugal, Kenya, and Uganda,
among other places.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, they've been exported to be farmed to many other places.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Absolutely, And I did see a lot of these when
I was in Muhan, China, Xiaolongzia, which translates to small
dragon stamp. I saw so many people in the streets
these big buckets. Oh wow. Yeah, I never tried them,
but Oh yeah, man, I was very nervous, like I
knew I couldn't eat them in the US, and I
was like, I don't need to make a fool myself
(19:45):
in China more than I already am. They first arrived
to China in the nineteen forties. The Louisiana crawfish crawfish, yeah, yeah,
And while they are popular food stuff in the country,
they do present a problem for some of the native
fish population and important commercial plants like rice and lotus. Farmers,
knowing that the species is invasive and destructive to their
(20:08):
rice patties, may still keep a pond full of them
because they make them more money than the rice does.
And I read an an interview with one of the
farmers that does this, and he said he would prefer
he makes more money off of crawfish, and if he could,
that's all he would make his money off of. Oh wow.
As opposed to rice. Rice ponds are a great environment
for crawfish. In Louisiana, a lot of flooded rice fields
(20:29):
have been turned into crawfish ponds.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah. Or some farmers will do rice one year and
then crawfish the next, and switching back and forth.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Yeah. And in recent years, there has been some controversy
over Chinese crawfish in American stores, appearing under names that
imply that they are from Louisiana. The Louisiana Crawfish Association
claims that Chinese crawfish are treated with an antibiotic band
here in the US, chloram finicol. A law pass in
(20:57):
the US in two thousand and eight requires that when
a paid can ask where crawfish comes from at a
Louisiana restaurant, they have to tell you. It's called colloquially
the ask before you eat law. Uh yeah, huh.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
But like Annie said earlier, there are species of crawfish
native to all lots of places around the world. North
America does have the highest biodiversity of crawfish species, and
some of the most popular for eating crawfish have traditionally
been on the less popular end of the seafood industry,
but it is expected to grow globally in coming years.
(21:32):
But that is the future.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yes, let's look at the past.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Let's but first let's look at a quick break for
a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. And
we're back with history.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yes, the ancient Greeks are said to have enjoyed crawfish
along with a bunch of others shellfish, although the same
words were often used interchangeably at the time for freshwater
crawfish and saltwater lobsters of various sorts, and even sometimes
for crabs. So thanks for nothing, ancient Greeks.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah. We talked a bit about the Acadians, the ancestors
of the Cajuns that came from Canada down to Louisiana
in our Jumbalaya episode. They often get the credit for
introducing crawfish to Louisiana, but the indigenous people of the
region were certainly eating crawfish before they arrived, long before. Yeah.
They use reeds baited with a venison to catch them.
(22:37):
When the Acadians arrived around seventeen fifty five, they quickly
discovered that the swamps and bayou that they settled near
were full of these weird looking things, and thanks to
their familiarity with lobster catching in Canada and their close
proximity with the indigenous peoples of the region, it didn't
take people long for them to become for crawfish to
become a favorite among the settlers. The first own record
(23:01):
of commercial crawfish in the state dates back to eighteen
hundred twenty three four hundred pounds worth about two one
hundred and forty dollars according to this calculator I found,
that's about forty one thousand dollars in today's oh Wow money.
Although commercial sales didn't really start until the eighteen hundreds,
were coming to a close with the introduction of larger
(23:22):
nets that made harvest easier. In nineteen oh eight, with
the help of technological advances and industrialization, the number of
commercial craw fists reached eighty eight thousand pounds valued at
thirty six hundred dollars or over ninety three thousand dollars
in today's money, So that's a pretty big boost there.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Speaking of industrialization, commercial crawfish farming in man made ponds
got its start in the nineteen sixties, which really upped
the quality of crawfish production. Before then, crawfish were really
just harvested from their native environments, and this was the
first time that people were using aquaculture to farm crawfish.
(24:03):
It was partially due to interest and partially because with
the rise of mass industry, many rivers around the world
became too polluted for crawfish to survive on their own.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And from there the industry only grew and is now
the largest freshwater crustacean industry in the country. Before this innovation,
crawfish had been deemed a poor man's food. Up to
this point. For a lot of people, crawfish was the
bait you would use to catch actual quote food. But
the nineteen sixties and man made ponds changed that, and
(24:37):
of course the price rose from about five cents a
pound to about twenty five cents a pound or around
two dollars in today's money. Nineteen sixties saw the first
Barolbridge Crawfish Festival to celebrate Barolbridge being dubbed Crawfish Capital
of the World. The festival's goal was to improve the
reputation of the crawfish, and it still takes place every
(24:58):
year to this day. A court of crawfish Royalty is chosen.
The queen gets to wear this fantastic cape and wield
a scepter. I've never realized how much I want to
wield a scepter until doing these episodes. USA Today listed
it as one of the top ten food festivals in
the US, So if you.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Ever have a chance to check it out, do so?
Do so absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
A couple of years into the sixties, AJ Judas Junior,
aka the Crazy Frenchman, imported bags of crawfish from Brobridge
to his family Port Arthur's store Judases French Market. After
he opened his second store in nineteen seventy eight, he
served them there too. And the main reason I wanted
to touch on this is because in nineteen sixty three,
(25:40):
Judas introduced Texas to the sport of crawfish racing. I'll
say it again, crawfish racing. Crawfish racing, crawfish racing. A
Texas governor, no joke, appointed Judas a Texas Crawfish Racing Commissioner.
His reasoning to quote ensure that no one scrupulous characters
(26:04):
got into the crawfish racing industry in the great state
of Texas. I apologize to everyone from Texas. I'm really
bad at Southern accents and I can't differentiate.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I gave it a swing and I miss, Oh, It's
it's okay. I think I think, you know, like the
feeling was there, yeah, yeah, the passion.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Thank you, Lauren, You're welcome. Thank you. Louisiana's elected their
first Cajun governor, Edwin Edwards, in nineteen seventy two, and
his campaign slogan was Cajun Power, and the image it
commonly came with was of a clenched fist, reminiscent of
the Black Power fist, but in the fist was a crawfish.
(26:48):
Mm hmm. About a decade later, in nineteen eighty three,
Louisiana became the first state to have a state crustacean,
the crawfish.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Five other states in this our glorious Union of official
crustaceans crabs in Maryland and Oregon, shrimp and Alabama and Texas,
and lobsters in Maine. I went on a serious rabbit
hole about this. I love this stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's pretty excellent and ridiculous. With even more technological innovations
in the nineteen eighties that allowed the safe shipping of
live crawfish around the country, popularity of them drove up
even more. Paul Prudom, who we've mentioned a couple of times,
he helped introduce this ingredient to a wider audience, and
in March twenty seventeen, Louisiana Lieutenant governor Pardoned Amilie the
(27:38):
crawfish saving her from boiling at the inaugural Crawfish Pardoning,
brought to you by Zaurans. Okay, so they're going to
pardon a crawfish now allah the Turkey once a year. Yeah,
that's it's lovely, live free Emily, I said, Omile. But
I believe it's Emily.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Emil who knows, I don't French. I apologize. We have
some more crawfish science for you, but first we've got
one more quick break for a word from our sponsor,
(28:21):
and we're back, Thank you sponsor. So okay, the science
section on this one is about mutants and genetics, gonna
ry and fear bald crawfish fear.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Yeah, here's some headlines for you. From the BBC New
crayfish that doesn't need males to mate becomes all powerful.
From the AJAC who needs a man, All female mutant
crayfish taking over the world scientists say. From Science Magazine
an aquarium accident may have given this crayfish the DNA
(29:00):
take over the world. And from the Guardian shell shock
Why crayfish replicants aren't taking over? Oh my goodness. Yeah,
we need to batten down the hatches. Apparently we need
to take some crawfish slash crayfish protection. We need to
figure some things out, Lauren escape plan we do.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Maybe this is maybe this is what clone Annie is
working on.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Oh my gosh, she's probably behind this somehow.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Okay, what is actually going on here?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Okay, Well, this whole thing got started at a German
pet shop in the nineteen nineties. And I would just
like to say that that sounds exactly like how a
whole lot of harmities start and or comic books. Ooh, okay, yeah,
this is like a superhero origin story. It is or
the beginning of the end of the world. I'm not
(29:56):
comforting anyone, Nope. All right, So one of the female crayfish,
and I'm probably gonna start saying crayfish because that it's
the more popular term. That is what almost all of
these articles used. Okay, one of the female crayfish in
the aquarium, an ancestor of the sloth crayfish found in
Florida and Georgia mutate it gaining an extra pair of chromosomes,
which may or may not be the actual cause of
(30:16):
their new found ability to reproduce asexually.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, because they can reproduce asexually.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Now, yep, they can. This mutation allows them to reproduce
without males, hundreds of eggs at once. All clones and
all those offspring had the same mutation. Wow, and three
months one will multiply into two hundred or three hundred. Wow.
This species is known as the marbled crayfish. And again
it's like parasite. Parasite eve comes up again. Who knew?
(30:44):
For a while they were really popular in the pet business,
particularly in Germany, sometimes known there as the Texas crayfish,
but more commonly as of two thousand and three, marmal crebs.
But they would pretty rapidly overfill your aquarium, as you
might guess, So people were releasing them into the wild.
Oh no, yeah, were they spread? Don't do that, I
(31:06):
mean right, but then what do you do? Oh goodness,
I have a crawfish boil like every week. Oh my goodness. Yeah.
So they were released into the wild and they spread
and spread, and they threaten other wild species of crawfish.
In North America, you can buy marbled crayfish. This is
(31:27):
so strange, switching back and forth, apart from in two
states that have banned the sale of them. But you're
warned against keeping them as pets, and you can't sell
them at all in the European Union. They are a
particular problem with Madagascar since they first arrived in two
thousand and seven. There are now millions of them and
seven native species are threatened for added sci fiedness. The
(31:52):
ones found in the US are blue, like.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Bright blue, bright like blueberry blue.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, which it seems has to do with how much
they social, which is excellent because they're blue because they
have no friends, see. And another pretty great thing is
that they're often compared to Star Treks tribles.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Oh yeah, they're like spiny clawed tribles.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, if you're not familiar with Star Trek, can you
explain what triples are?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Oh, triples are these little, these little fuzzy puffballs about
maybe like the size of a softball, a little bit
oblonger than that, I suppose. And yeah, there's a whole
trouble with tribles that happens in the original Star Trek
and is then revisited on the show Deep Space nine,
where it's it's nothing but confusing kling on makeup and
(32:44):
mini skirts and tribles everywhere. Because they also they reproduce
I don't know very quickly, very quickly.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
It's never very much.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I don't think it's ever made really explicitly clear if
it's like a butting process, sure, like like Gremlin.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yes, I did see a lot of Gremlin's references. Yeah, yeah,
trials and tribulations.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Trials, right, that's the name of the Deep Space nine episode.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Right, anyway, back on track, Some scientists think the marbled
crayfish could provide some insight into the development and growth
of tumors. Oh, the DNA has been sequenced in everything,
which is a first for crayfish and any of its
close relatives. The process took years and was not easy.
(33:30):
Another mystery of the natural world that scientists are hoping
the marbled crayfish will help solve the reason why so
many animals have sex. Huh A sexual female cloning species
only make up about one in ten thousand species, and
then residing theory for that is that they don't last
that long. That maybe having sex gives you exposes you
(33:50):
to more germs.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Word well, and yeah, the different differentiation in in DNA
can yeah help give you you know, can help you
evolve and give you chances at getting a good evolution.
Rights or a good mutation rather sorry.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, and since this is a newish species, scientists are
watching pretty closely to see what's gonna happen. Ugh. Yeah.
I also read that the mutation perhaps didn't happen in
Germany at all, but in the US in nineteen ninety five,
and from there, the owner of this mutated crayfish gave
all the offspring two pet stores, some of which passed
(34:24):
them along to Europe, and then maybe the Germany story
picks up. Huh. They definitely were popular in Germany and
there's definitely a lot of references to an aquarium in Germany.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
This genuinely sounds like a Michael Crichton novel. Like I
know that we were making jokes about Jurassic Park earlier,
but like like life, life finds a way, and yeah,
like the frogs becoming yeah asexual and the huh yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
The dinosaurs are female? Are female? Yeah, but they found
out but they did. Oh and also unrelated probably probably
does anyone else remember that story from about it a
year ago of an army of crawdads. Now I'm saying
craw dads roaming the streets of New Mexico, even though
there was no source of water nearby.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Does anyone remember that I had no idea what you
were talking about, but you wrote it in the notes
and I went and looked it up and that I mean, yeah,
the news stories about it are like are like, well,
I was hanging out in my driveway and then I
noticed that a whole bunch of crawfish were strolling down
the street, and so I started putting them in buckets
(35:29):
and putting them in the local like drainage ditch so
that they wouldn't dry out.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
I mean, it was just like, like, no one knows
why all these crawfish were just like down the road,
but they were.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Perhaps we should be taking them a little more seriously,
That's all I can say. Oh, man, well that is
our crawfish episode. And it was so fun to research.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Oh yeah, it also made me really excited to do
a lobster episode, because lobsters are similar but different enough
that they're super fascinating. And yeah, I guess if crawfish
is a kind of regionalized term, how many people were like, oh,
it's crayfish the whole time.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Oh yeah, sorry about it, folks.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, I wasn't really like I said, it wasn't really
introduced to them until I came to Atlanta, and so therefore,
even though I'm from South Florida and the North, I
picked up the word crawfish because that's what everyone.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Here calls them.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, at least I haven't like southernized enough to the
point that I'm.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Like crawl daddies. Yet not yet.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
There's always time.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
There's always time, and that, as you learn, once you
say crawdaddies, that's when you have the method of eating
them down. That's the natural progression.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
It's the evolution of language.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yes, yes, perfect. Oh. We look forward to that day.
We do. And that brings us to the end of
this class episode. We hope that you enjoyed it as
much as we loved revisiting it. As always, whatever you're celebrating,
we hope that you're safe, happy, and we love hearing
from you about the foods that you eat. I remember
(37:13):
that you cook and eat because I remember specifically people
have sent in their menus and I love how all
across the board they are oh yeah, oh absolutely, my
mom she's fine, but she had COVID and so we're
doing a much like lower key okay thing. This year,
and we're making some seafood based situations that I'm very
(37:36):
excited about. But yeah, I do love hearing, especially like
stuff like friends giving where it's just like everyone shows up.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
With something something and you're kind of like and you're
kind of like you eat this, like this is your tradition,
Like what is that like?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
So wonderful? Yeah, I love it and I can see
Crayfish being involved in something like that, So please let
us know. We do love hearing about that and about
how all of you are doing. If you would like
to send us something you can.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
You can email us at hello at saverpod dot com,
and we're also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Save is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan
Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and
(38:29):
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.