smörgåsblogg
Crayfish are considered something of a delicacy here in Sweden. We had the good fortune of seeing how they are caught when we stayed with some friends out in the countryside a couple of weekends ago. Crayfish are to be trapped the night before the big feast. Here is how they do it...
First, you bait the traps with fish parts.
Next, close up the traps.
Pile the traps in the boat and row around, strategically placing the traps in the water. The traps are attached to strings, which are attached to floating wooden blocks so you know were to find them in the morning.
After collecting the traps in the morning, each crayfish must be measured (we caught almost 150 with 30 traps).
Those larger than 10cm are kept (we had 86 keepers); smaller than 10cm are released.
Don't they look appetizing?
When the water is boiling, in they go.
After being cooked and cooled, it is dinnertime.
Leo even tried a tiny bite.
I must have missed something-- what is the purpose of this feast, and who owns all the crayfish catchers??
Posted by: Casey at augusti 23, 2007 09:28 FMThere are crawfish boils down here and in Louisiana. We eat them with boiled potatoes, corn and sausage and a lot of cajun spice. It looks very similar to what you describe, but less civilized. Usually whoever is hosting the boil just dumps all the cooked crawfish and fixins' on a big table covered with newspaper and everyone just digs in. I have never seen the actual process of catching them, though. Very interesting!
Posted by: Allison at augusti 23, 2007 12:03 EMAllison T. described it perfectly. I added pics to our stark family blog to show you the festivities Allison describes. Our neighborhood does this boil every spring. It's super spicy.
Wonder who did this practice first orginated? B/c in the Texas History class I teach to lovely 7th graders there were Swedes in TX.
The Swedish
The first Swedish settler, S. M. Swenson, a twenty-two year old who made a fortune in cotton, arrived in Houston in 1836. He set off a stream of migration to Texas. Sweden at that time was poor, overpopulated, and with little food. Swenson offered free passage to anyone who would work for him for a year. This continued for sixty years.