8:42
This is a bathtub of 150 lb of boiling crawfish. And it's one of the best meals you have to eat when you're in New Orleans. Sensational. The juices that are released into your mouth. So, today we're going to see the entire crawfish process from the washing and cleaning to the boiling. All of the spices are going to embed and saturate within the crawfish, flavoring it as they boil. But, the question is how good do they taste? Good morning from New Orleans, Louisiana. It's a beautiful, but a cold day and we've just arrived to Casamento Seafood. This is one of the most iconic It's a restaurant, but mainly they sell
fresh seafood and also they're one of the biggest seafood and crawfish suppliers to New Orleans. So, this is like coming to the source and we got here early before they've opened for the day to be able to see some of the behind the scenes, how they boil crawfish and their seafood before we eat. All fresh fish. Okay. And uh filets and stuff like that. Now, this here is where we're going to put our shrimp. We put our fresh shrimp in here. Okay. And this here is our oysters and our crab meat and then this over here is our gumbo crabs. So, this is all the fresh market on this side.
Okay. So, Casamento is a seafood market, it's a restaurant, it's a You guys supply a lot of seafood as well, right? Oh, yeah. And the shop And I'll show I'll I'll even show you the shucking house. Okay. And this is the um kitchen side, which they do all po'boys, plates, Yes. This is the menu right behind you. Along with the crawfish, along with the seafood boils, you definitely got to try the po'boy here. And the catfish, too, right? Everything you want to eat, we got it here. Good morning. Some mountains of oysters for the day. Those are big oysters, too. Local oysters. Definitely going to try some oysters later on today, too. Oh, yeah. For sure.
This is where we they come in. Put them on the table, clean them. Pull shells out. Pull any kind of rock that they hit that goes in them. Then pack them in the containers. All iced down, all ready to go. So, you have freshly shucked oysters. Right. Then we put them in gallons and then we ship out to restaurants. Okay. So, this is part of the distribution as well. So, this is how you distribute Yeah. Very cool. So, we're moving outdoors to the patio area where we're getting serious with Louisiana crawfish. What we do, we dump our crawfish here. We give them a little hose job.
Okay. So, those are washed. Now, they go into the washing machine. That's going to clean off all that grass cuz these come straight from the bayou, from the marshlands. Oh. And as I'm speaking, they're falling out the side here. And those are cleaned. For the Louisiana crawfish, they're raised in the bayous. These are all pond crawfish right now. And then later on in a month or so, we start getting the spillway, the Bell River, the wild crawfish. Okay. All right. Are they brackish water or is it salt water? No, it's brackish water. Okay. So, it's mixed and fresh water. Salt water. Mhm. Okay. So, Tom's here now just picking out the dead crawfish. You only want the live crawfish to go into the boil. The lucky
live ones go up the slide, get jumped off into the basket over there, and then we're going to see how they are boiled, how they get prepared to consume. But, these are looking great. Process. Keeping it clean. Keeping it fresh. Crawfish are a Louisiana tradition. It's probably one of the most iconic, one of the most loved foods during the season that people look forward to and so it's such a cool opportunity to be able to see this process and this is only the washing and the cleaning of the crawfish. We haven't even eaten them and we haven't even seen the boiling process which is going to be amazing as well coming up soon. But yeah, it's just so
cool. Fresh crawfish. My mouth is already watering. They're about to be boiled up. So what's the main seasonings? We got our own blend and it's all grounded up in there. But we also use fresh lemons, fresh celery, fresh garlic. So that's 150 lbs of crawfish in the boil right now in the bathtub that are aroma of the spices, the lemon, the celery, the garlic and these are going to boil for about 20 minutes. All of that liquid, all of the spices are going to embed and saturate within the crawfish flavoring it as they boil and soon I think it's going to start to rolling boil but Oh, that feels so good. That's so warm.
The aroma of the spices. It's mouth-watering. Okay, we've also got live crabs for the day. Oh, nice. What kind of crabs are these? These are blue crabs? Blue crabs, okay. Okay, now time for the shrimp. Wow. So the shrimp go in that amount of steam. Oh, the aroma is unbelievable. All those spices, the lemon, the celery, the garlic in there. So that gets the similar treatment as the crawfish but this is with the shrimp and the juice is a little bit different. Oh, they're soaking up. So that fire is off now? Yeah. Okay. So they've been boiling for about 20 minutes. That is some of the most delicious steam you'll ever smell, you'll ever bathe in, but the fire goes
off and now just cooling it down and then they need to sit for another 20 to 30 minutes to absorb more of that broth and those spices before they're ready to eat. So the crawfish now are smoldering and actually what they do is they hose them down to cool them down because when they're hot, the crawfish come to the surface of the liquid, but then they cool it down so that they sink back into the liquid for another 20 30 minutes and they're going to absorb more of those spices and that seasoning. Oh, that aroma. This is what Let me tell you, this is what you want to be bathing in. The wait is over. The crawfish are ready. So they use a fishing net scoop it out. That broth has absorbed into the crawfish. We're getting 8 lb of crawfish
on a tray and that's just the start. I'll bring this over here and get you set up with this. Thank you. Okay, cool. back and get your crabs and everything else. Thank you. Shrimp are ready. Lovely. Nice shrimp. I'm getting the shrimp with the boiled crabs. It's a feast. Seafood feast. Yes. Amazing. Chef, what's up, man? What's up, dude? So the shrimp po' boy Yeah. Oh, that goes into a An egg wash. Okay, egg wash. Then there's the cornmeal flour.
Goes into the cornmeal flour. Yeah. Toss it up. Right, cool. Look at this big shrimp. Those go into the fryer. I've heard a lot of good things about the po'boy here. Fried shrimp po'boy. One of the best. You guys have gumbo, too, right? Yeah, they got the gumbo right here. And po'boy there. Oh, yeah. So, what are the proteins in the gumbo? You got shrimp. You got oysters. Shrimp, sausage. Okay. Oh, you hear them crispy shrimp already. Yeah. Gets a little seasoning.
Immediately onto the po'boy. Oh, yeah. Overflowing with shrimp. Cool. Thank you. Oh, you have to smash it in there. There's so much shrimp. Yes. Ready to go. Thank you. Thank you, chef. Thank you. Appreciate it. through. Thank you for coming through. Yeah, man. The table is full. We have everything here. We've got 8 lb of crawfish, freshly boiled, a dozen crabs, 3 or 4 lb of shrimp below there. We've got corn, potatoes, which is typical to eat along with the boil. Plus, we have some
freshly shucked oysters. We have the freshly fried shrimp po'boy. And then, I also could not resist trying the gumbo as well. What should we begin with? I think let's just start with that shrimp. These are fresh shrimp, good size. Shrimp is in season now. Going to pull off that head. All the juices, the head butter is in there. So, what you've got to do is definitely suck out that head first. Cool. Mhm.
Oh, wow. Immediately you bite down on that head. The juicy head butter is released and the flavor of that seasoning comes through and just hits all of your taste buds. Okay. Peel the shrimp. Okay. [snorts] Yeah, that's a nice looking shrimp. Oh, wow. That seasoning is incredible. It does have some spice to it. That's for sure. Like immediately your lips kind of tingle a little bit. Maybe that's from the cayenne. But then you taste the flavor of the garlic. You taste the flavor those uh trinity of the Cajun seasonings and Creole seasonings in there.
The lemon in there, a bit of acidity. And because it boils in that broth, in that bathtub, that jacuzzi of liquid, it absorbs all that seasoning and that flavor. Well, that's just incredible. Let's move into the oyster. Got to eat these while they're cold and fresh, freshly shucked moments ago. I think they're all loose now as well. Okay. I'm just going to go pure, nothing on it. Oh, that's actually cold. That melts in your mouth. Really fresh, of course. Sometimes you get oysters that are really you really taste the salinity of them, really taste the salty, seafoody, oceany
flavor of them. These ones have this really clean less salty flavor to them. But just plump, melt in your mouth, delicious. Okay, for my next one I will douse it in some Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce. And let's try it this way. Mhm. With that crystal, that saltiness, that acidity. Oh, yeah. That vinegary acidity added to the plump oyster. Great texture, melt in your mouth, and plump all at the same time. Delicious and very refreshing.
Okay, we still have a lot more food to try. Okay, next up let's try the gumbo. Okay, open this up. There's rice in the bottom when they serve it. They put it into rice into a bowl with rice. So, there's rice on the bottom. There's oysters, some of the sausage, some of the shrimp. Oh, it smells good. You immediately smell that smokiness of the sausage in there as well. Mhm. The flavor of that sausage is incredible. And then you taste the herbs in here as well. You taste the flavor of the roux. And the roux is like a flour which has been sautéed down with fat to thicken it and then to make it give it
that like brown gravy flavor and aroma to it. Mhm. This is so warming. And then all that seafood as well. You taste the flavor of the oysters and the shrimp in there as well. Mhm. Gumbo is something that's just so warming, so comforting. And I like that thick texture with that rice. It's one of the most iconic foods of New Orleans that you have to eat. Oh, this is really good. Just pure, warm comfort food. Okay, I cannot wait any longer. It is time for the mountain, the big event, the crawfish. And crawfish are something that again, as I've been mentioning to you, it is crawfish are it's more than a food in Louisiana. It is a culture. It's
iconic. Crawfish are actually native to Louisiana. Native Americans uh were eating crawfish uh for I mean, throughout history and they're originally they're native to the bayous, to the brackish waters and the marsh swamps of Louisiana. And so, this is as native of a local food of Louisiana as you can get. So, yeah. So, we have Oh, they're just They were really hot and steaming. They're still hot down here. But, you see the pieces of lemon in here. Let's get one. Okay. This is the lucky guy. Going to be the first taste of the crawfish. So, twist off Just twist off the body, open it up and look on the inside. Oh, the fat comes out.
The fat and juice. So, before we dig into the body though, got to suck out all the head butter juices. And that's where a lot of flavor lives. Oh, wow. Oh, that's just a shot of the crawfish juice and all those boiling seasonings and you taste the flavor, the acidity of the lemon as well. Mhm. Wow, that's a lot of flavor. That's incredible. Now, for the body, there's a few different methods. I know some people peel Let's try it this way. Some people kind of peel the first two scale, I don't know if they're called scales or first two rows of the
crawfish. And then you can kind of pop out the whole body. We've got the body. Oh, some of my head butter fell out. Okay. Wow. The sweetness of it, the texture mixed with that fat It's a perfect harmony. It's rich. It's so flavorful. That seasoning is just perfection. And it's just a harmony of all those flavors. And the seasonings, yeah. The cayenne pepper, the pepper, the It's just all the flavors of Louisiana and crawfish that you want in your mouth all at the same time. Okay, let's grab another one. And then for this body, what I like to do often actually is just kind of crack
it down the center, give it a little squeeze, and you can almost open it like butterfly style. And then that releases the whole body section. Just make sure you don't lose any of that fatty, juicy deliciousness. There we go. And that just pulls out the whole body section. And actually, you have a little tail on it to hold it. Yeah, it takes a little bit of effort to open, but you are rewarded with one of the tastiest little most addictive little creatures you will ever eat. You can understand why people just sit around for hours enjoying a crawfish boil, having a
drink, socializing. You could just keep on eating non-stop and just overwhelming your taste buds with delicious flavor. Just fully coated in delicious flavor. Crawfish really are like the perfect little crustacean vessel or little creature vessel for absorbing that flavor in that broth, just magnifying the tastiness. They're a perfect food, meal, snack. Mhm. I think try to find one with some of the bigger claws. Maybe we can eat the claw as well. Here we go. This one looks pretty good.
Look at that fat on the inside just blooming. Oh, wow. Okay, let's see if we can get the claw in this. So, let's see if we can open it up. That's another piece of meat that we don't want to miss. So, I have seen that you can kind of loosen it up and if you're lucky you might be able to pull it out. Let's see. Loosen it up. Let's see if it works. But if not, you have to go into more of a procedure. Here we go. Ready for the reveal? Okay, didn't get the whole thing. There's definitely some still left in there, but a little bit.
Hold on. The actual claw tastes more crabby. Like it has a more crab flavor to it. And then let's try to bite this open. I think one of the good things about a crawfish is that the shell is quite soft. Um so that it does allow all that broth to soak inside. But it's also really easy to open. Oh, yeah. So, you can see the meat on the inside there. That has a really good like yeah, like almost like a crab flavor.
Amazing. Okay, let's try some of the corn. We still have the po'boy to eat as well and the crab. So, it's also very common to have We got some potatoes. We got some corn along with your crawfish or seafood boil. I think it is boiled in the same broth, that same juice. So, it has that same spice flavor, but then you have it combined with the sweetness of that corn. Another perfect combination for a seafood boil. Okay, let's try their famous po'boy next. Um and that is so heavy and you can see the juices coming through. That's why po'boys are wrapped in paper. But in order to close this, yeah,
literally, it's going to be overflowing with shrimp. Are you ready? Oh. Oh, it's just completely Like I mean, the ratio of bread to shrimp is impressive. It's totally loaded, completely packed full of fried shrimp and that seasoning. Oh, this is their famous fried shrimp po'boy. And again, one of the iconic foods of New Orleans, po'boys. Uh this one is impressive because of the quantity of shrimp. And again, we're at the source of the seafood, so guaranteed freshest shrimp. And they're battered, then that egg batter, the wet egg batter, then the cornmeal goes on to make them extra crispy, then that
seasoning and just again, fully loaded, absolutely stuffed. You know it's a good po'boy when it's just spilling with shrimp. Look at the size. There has to be like five layers of shrimp in this sandwich from that cross-section. That crispy breading the peppery seasoning the mayonnaise the bread is soft and yet it's crusty and durable all at the same time to be able to hold everything together. So, it has like a the crust of the bread has this amazing kind of chewy texture to it. And then the seasonings the toppings are simple, just with the crunch of the lettuce, the acidity of the tomato, and focusing on the
freshness of those fried shrimp. Mhm. Now I know why everyone mentions the shrimp poboy that you have to try it when you're here. Delicious. Guaranteed fresh and gigantic. For my next bite, I'll hit it that with a little bit of the crystal. Guaranteed to get all over your face, all over your hand. You're going to have things dripping. That's why you have the whole paper to to catch the fall, the debris of falling sandwich material. Oh. Then you can just pick it up. And keep on eating it. And the mayonnaise just kind of becomes this saucy, it liquefies within the shrimp, the hot shrimp, giving it this creamy
sauciness, not a blobby mayonnaise. But I'll just do one more. One more hot sauce bite. Absolutely phenomenal. Let's move on to the crab now. And we got a mix of different crabs. There's some females, there's some male crabs. If I remember correctly how to tell the difference between a male and a female, I think it has to do with the You can tell from the apron side. You can see from the bottom side. You can tell the difference what is the male and the female. This one's female. Here we go. Pull that up, and then that will pull off the head. Oh, there we go. All the juices in there. And then what you can do, pull it in half.
Oh, you get again that sensational aroma from the boil. Oh, that's so juicy and creamy on the inside. Okay, so let me start with drinking the head. Oh. [snorts] Again, all of that seasoning that's magnified and then you have that umami of the crab, the crab head, that butter on the inside there and it's not I don't think it's a row because it's a I think this is the male, but it's just absorbed with the seasoning with that fat. That's a lot of flavor in your mouth. Now for the body, I'm going to maybe if we break this one more time, you'll see it's actually blooming with meat.
Look at all that crab in there. Oh. It's so stringy. And then you just have a crab, you want to bite down and you want to kind of inhale and suck in at the same time so you get all that juice. Oh, wow. Phenomenal. Yeah, it's so good. The sweetness of that crab is incredible. And then for this other section, you can see the fattiness of that as well. The richness. You want to bite right down there so you get all that fattiness plus the meat mixed within. Inhale. Suck in. Oh, wow.
Crabs are incredible. Actually, I mean everything has been incredible. The shrimp are so good. Crab is amazing. Crawfish are outstanding. Okay, for this one I think I requires a little bit of cracking of the claw. Let's try to crack that shell. There we go. And then for the actual claw, there we go. Okay, let's start with this claw. Okay, I didn't crack it that well, but that's okay, that will do. Mhm. Again, really sweet. And really stringy, flaky.
Oh, you taste the freshness of everything. And again, Casamento Seafood is the best place to come because not only do they cook the seafood and prepare the seafood, but they are one of the biggest distributors of seafood. So, they have the freshest catch. Some of the freshest seafood you'll find in all of New Orleans and some of the best. Mhm. And their boils are absolutely and the cooboy are absolutely incredible. Okay. Crab. That was excellent. I want to have another shrimp before I dive back headfirst into the crawfish. Into the mountain of crawfish. Yeah, the shrimp are actually incredible as well. You can actually see the juice in the head. It's
like a pool, a pool of juice in the head. So, when you pull that off, make sure you have it upright so that you preserve all the juice in the head. Suck it out. Oh, wow. And then peel the body. And another thing about the shrimp is they peel so nicely. So easy to peel. They just come off like a shell. And that's a good size bite of shrimp right there. Amazing. Okay. Let's head back into the mountain of crawfish. We have a lot to eat. Mhm. All the crawfish splatter. That's all part of the experience.
Yeah, and the more you keep on eating, you just start to peel them quickly, unleashing the crawfish. Oh. Yeah, the crawfish are just so good. One of the gifts of Louisiana, the sweetness, the richness, that flavor just unbelievable. Yeah. It really is a seafood boil, a crawfish boil is one of the great culinary experiences, not just in Louisiana, but in the United States, in the entire world. It's one of the great culinary traditions, brings people together all surrounding a table of delicious food. It's communal, it's social, it represents a major part of the culture. And I guarantee it's they're so addictive.
You won't be able to stop eating. It was so cool to be able to see the process, the crawfish being washed, the effort that goes in to this plate of crawfish that you eat. Made the experience even more memorable and valuable. And all the staff here Castnet are so friendly, so welcoming. Huge thank you to Tom for taking us around, showing us, giving us a full tour here. It's an amazing place, friendly place. Again, you can come here to buy fresh seafood, which a lot of people do. You can buy the hot food, the po'boys and the fried fish on the kitchen side, and then you can get your crawfish to boil,
and get a whole basket to take home or eat anywhere you want or on the spot. When you're in New Orleans, don't miss Castnet Seafood. Highly recommend it. And thank you for watching. Remember to give this video a thumbs up. Leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you, and see you on the next video. Thanks again for watching.
