Alex Patout describes Crawfish as "a delicacy made for sharing- in fact, in Cajun country, boiling crawfish for only two people counts as a venial sin." Wash the crawfish well and pick out any fish bones or other debris. Fill a great big (40-quart) Stockpot a quarter full of water. Add the salt and peppers and bring to boil. Add the whole onions, the corn, and the new potatoes (it will be easy to remove them later if you put them in a cloth sack). Return to boil, cover, lower heat to medium, and let cook for 8 minutes. Add crawfish, cover again and raise heat to high. After steam begins to escape from under the lid, cook 7 minutes more. Remove from heat and let sit for 4 minutes. Do *Not* remove the lid until this point! Remove the onions, corn, and potatoes to a bowl and drain the crawfish. Place the crawfish in a large insulated container (an ce chest works well, as do the thick waterproof boxes chickens are shipped in, which your butcher may give you for free). Have your *Sprinkle* ready and sprinkle over the crawfish and mix them well to coat. Cover and let sit for 7 minutes.

Serve immediately with the onions, corn, new potatoes, and lots of French bread on a large table covered with plenty of paper. When everyone has eaten his fill, everyone "peels for the house." The peeled tails can then be used in cold crawfish cocktail or salad or for Fried Crawfish the next day.

Serves 8-10

process because too much salt added during cooking makes the flesh of the crawfish adhere to the shell.

From Alex Patout's "Cajun Home Cooking" - Random House