In California, fishermen trap cool-water crawfish in rivers that feed the Sacramento Delta. Fishermen in the Midwest trap the species in lakes. Limited amounts are farmed in Europe. Product Profile Crawfish meat is sweet like lobster meat but more tender and not quite as rich. All crawfish cook up brilliant red.
Raw meat is grayish in color.
Cooked meat should be a clean white. Softshell crawfish are those that have just molted. Make sure live product is indeed alive before cooking. As with lobster, the meat deteriorates rapidly after death. Crawfish fat, sometimes called head fat, is yellow and contains most of the flavor.