Why Farming Crawfish And Rice Go Hand In Hand

When a delicious Cajun dish like crawfish étouffée over rice lands on your table, you may be so entranced by the hearty, spiced aromas that you neglect to think about its staple ingredients. But as you dig in, you'll soon realize it's the timeless combo of starchy rice smothered (per the French translation) in a creamy crawfish-laden sauce that makes culinary magic. What you may not know is that the crustaceans and grains are cultivated together. Yes, literally together in the same shallow water at the same time.

Although crawfish has been farmed in Louisiana since the 1880s, it wasn't until the 1950s and '60s that farmers began to realize the benefits of growing both crops simultaneously. Crawfish and rice both share a two-year growing cycle and do best in low, swampy waters. By cultivating rice and following with crawfish, the rice remnants and other parts of the ecosystem (like algae) serve as food for the maturing crawfish. What's more, as the rice reaches a certain height, its canopy shelters the crawfish from hungry birds and protects them from high temperatures. It is a remarkably symbiotic situation.

A seasonal seafood specialty, crawfish celebrate peak season between February and April, and eating them is an affair unto itself. Many people create entire festive crawfish boils around their consumption. Eating them is a bit of a messy affair, but you'll be digging in once you know the basics. Most important to know is that crawfish have two distinct parts, the heads and the tails. Separating and peeling off the tail's shell yields the most meat, but people also laud the heads for having the most flavor. In fact, it's common for lovers of this crustacean to suck the offal-y "crawfish butter" directly from the shell. For those less inclined, you can also remove the bits in the head with a spoon.

Beyond a crawfish boil, several other Cajun specialties also lean heavily on rice and crawfish. From jambalaya — which mixes spicy and smoky meats like chicken and sausage alongside the staple rice and commonly includes crawfish — to gumbo, a soup ladled over rice that features okra and is made heartier with proteins like crawfish or shrimp. The bottom line is: Where there are crawfish, rice isn't far off, in what may be the ultimate case of "what grows together, goes together."