On Food and Cooking

kg. Crayfish are the most easily cultured of
the crustaceans, and have been raised in
natural ponds in the Atchafalaya Basin of
Louisiana for better than two centuries.
They’re also prized in Sweden.
The main attraction of all these creatures is
their white “tail” meat. Three European and
American lobster species and their crayfish
cousins have large claws, which in the
American lobster can amount to half the total
body weight. A larger group of more distant
relatives, the spiny and rock lobsters
(Palinurus, Panuliris, Jasus and others), are
less impressively endowed, and are called
“clawless”; they supply much frozen lobster
tail, because their meat freezes better than
clawed lobster meat. The claw meat is
noticeably different from the main body and
tail meats. Because they require more
stamina, claw muscles include a substantial
proportion of slow red fibers (p. 132), and
have a distinctive, richer flavor.