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Russian Crawfish Flavoring Butter Recipe

Russian Flavoring Crawfish Butter

Russian crawfish flavoring butter uses for flavoring dishes like sauces for example, mostly at restaurants these days. Crawfish meat doesn’t have a strong flavor by itself. I saw recipes in many Russian cookbooks and always want to make one day. We live in Louisiana, The USA and when the season starts we have crawfish in every grocery store widely available cooked and fresh.

Crawfish on the plate with garlic

After I share the idea to make crawfish butter with my family and friends, they told me that nobody will be interesting because of the availability of crawfish, complications to make butter and the limitation of use. You maybe tell me the same. I make it a few times just for my curiosity and I share with you the recipe. I made classic Holland sauce and surprisingly, it was so good and everybody likes it. I served with steamed fish and crawfish meat. However, if you cook with this exotic and delicacy butter, be very conservative and don’t use it much. I used proportions 4 parts of unsalted butter + 1 part of crawfish butter and rest of recipe like classic Holland sauce. The taste of crawfish butter is very strong and can’t replace all butter in the recipe.

I had real fun making the video on how to make crawfish butter, I hope you watched it at the bottom of the page!

I found a crawfish flavoring butter recipe in the old Russian book 1891. If you are interested in Russian cuisine, I hardly recommend this book. Book called “Classic Russian Cooking ” by Elena Molokhovets “A Gift for Young Housewives” 1861. The cookbook kindly translated from Russian by Joyce Toomre. She did a great job and you can learn a lot about Russian cuisine.

Preparation Crawfish Shells

Crawfish shells and meat for cooking

To make dry crawfish shell powder we need to dry crawfish shells at first. I peeled cooked crawfish and cut the front of the crawfish. We use only shells and eyes need to be removed because give bitterness. Place shells on the cooking pan and dry at 350°F temperature. Time depends on how wet shells are, for me it took 30 minutes.

Very important to add lemon slices to shells when drying in the oven!

I didn’t add lemon at first when was drying shells and the odor was so strong around the house! I get a few complaints from my family and they keep asking when I will be done. Drying was not a 1-minute deal and stressful but I didn’t give up! I added lemon to the pan and it helped a lot to reduce the strong crayfish odor. Next time if I dry crawfish shells, definitely going to do it outside. From 2 pounds crawfish, I had a 5 oz crawfish shells powder.

Drying crawfish shells in oven

Cool off the shells and grind into small pieces. Excess of shells, keep in ziplock bag or jar.

Recommended ⇒ Pan-Fried Salmon Without Oil Or Butter On Baking Paper

Crawfish Butter Recipe

Ingredients for crawfish butter

We need:

0.5 pound of unsalted butter

2 table spoons of ground crayfish shells

Lemon to reduce smell in oven.

Mix very well crawfish shells powder with soften butter and bring to boil.

2. Boil slow butter by point it will be orange color.

3. Strain with 2 layers of cheesecloth.

Another technique to make crawfish butter, add boiled water to butter when frying it. The taste will be mild and more delicate. But with this technique, we need to be sure all water evaporated if you are going to store butter.

Enjoy!

Russian Glossary Crayfish Butter Photo