The right crawfish pot is a great beginning to a fabulous boiled crawfish recipe. All of us wanna-be "Food Network" chefs want to emulate our favorite cooks but always slack on the needed kitchen equipment. We fake it and use whatever is near and dear, but who knows just how great that recipe could have been?

Crawfish is one of the funniest looking crustaceans you’d ever want to meet. And no matter how strange looking they are, once you remove them from the crawfish pot and start eating, you completely forget about looks.

Do I Really Want A Mud Bugger?

Crawfish otherwise known as mud buggers or crayfish are from the shrimp and lobster family with a hard outer shell and small meager meat in the claw. They are harvested from swamps, bayous and lakes and are one of the most important and popular elements of the Louisiana cuisine.

Boiling is the most popular form of cooking crawfish and that’s what makes the crawfish pot such an important part of the boiled crawfish recipe.

Just how significant is a crawfish pot? Does it really make or break your crawfish recipe? It surely does make a difference.

Crawfish pots are created wide and deep for all the ingredients. Many people are not familiar with Louisiana cooking and don’t realize all the elements of an authentic Louisiana dish.

You see, when you cook crawfish that’s not the only ingredient being thrown into the crawfish pot. You’ve got garlic, onions, potatoes, andouille sausage, corn and Creole or Cajun seasoning and that’s only one version of a hundred recipes for crawfish in Louisiana.

The crawfish pot is important because the bigger the party, the bigger the dish and therefore the crawfish pot will certainly make a difference to your recipe. How many pounds will you cook? Twenty pounds, forty pounds or more starts the party which could very well turn into a weekend event.

Cooking crawfish in the crawfish pot, cooling, peeling and eating are all a delicate science to this recipe. Preparation beforehand must be exact; some salt the crawfish and some don’t but to properly clean these little "mud buggers" you must soak and soak until they render all their inner mud puddles outwards before the cooking begins.

Don’t jump to the crawfish pot too soon. Complete the cleaning and onto the separation of the dead from the live crawfish. Now onto the crawfish pot for a quick boil.

All that work to get the mud buggers ready for the crawfish pot and when their ready to be removed from the pot, you still need to sit and peel them.

Many will say this seems like too much work for such a small crustacean with little to no meat however just the joy of sharing the Louisiana history of the crawfish recipes amongst friends is well worth the time and effort.

While you’re planning your next crawfish get together don’t forget to figure out what size crawfish pot you’ll need to accommodate all the old and new faces ready to party.