HOT FROM THE POT

By Donny Rouse, CEO, 3rd Generation

PHOTO BY CHANNING CANDIES

Peak crawfish season starts now, which means crawfish are just the right size for boiling. We’ll sell more than two million pounds of Louisiana crawfish before the end of June. We have special boiling rooms in most of our stores, and we park custom-made boiling trailers at some locations so we can cook up to 3,000 pounds at a time. We even have crawfish drive-thrus in some of our parking lots, so you can get crawfish without ever going in the store.

We have customers all over the Gulf Coast who come by each day to get a few pounds hot from the pot. Clearly, you don’t have to be from Louisiana to love Louisiana crawfish: We sold nearly a quarter of a million pounds in our Alabama stores last year.

Of course, we always start with the best crawfish, but the key really is our seasoning. Last year, we finally packaged it. Our Down the Bayou Seafood Mix is seasoned with lemon and onion and just the right amount of granulated garlic. I use the mix whether I’m boiling at home or at the camp. And I always add a ton of whole heads of garlic to the pot. It gets super soft and soaks up all of that spicy crawfish boil flavor. When you squeeze the bulb, the cloves pop right out, so it’s easy to smear them on crackers or potatoes. That’s always been one of my favorite ways to eat garlic.