This helpful chart from shows the difference.

“langostino” comes from the Spanish for … “spiny lobster” or “little lobster.” Though they are sometimes marketed as lobster (and also called “squat lobsters”), they are more closely related to hermit or porcelain crabs. There’s more! You can also find “langostino.”ĭespite its Italian-sounding name. “Prawn” is usually thought of as a synonym for shrimp, though, scientifically speaking, the “prawn” family includes, M-W says, “any of various widely distributed edible decapod crustaceans” including what we’re calling here “langoustine.” (The French word for “shrimp” is “crevette,” taking us back to “ creveis. It gets worse: These “langoustine” are also called “Dublin Bay prawns, ” M-W says. Those look more like “crawfish” than “lobster,” with longer claws. In fact, some “crawfish” live on land as well as in water. They didn’t get their fishy names because they live in the water. And in a few places, The Dictionary of Regional English says, they’re called “crawdabs.”īut they’re not fish they’re crustaceans, cousins of lobsters and shrimp and crabs and other species. “Crawdad,” M-W helpfully explained, “is the synonym of the words crawfish and crayfish that is used chiefly west of the Appalachians to mean the aquatic animal that looks like a small lobster and lives in rivers and streams.” In our experience, they are also called “crawdaddies,” a diminutive. ICYMI: Hand signs are useful-but not universal (The answer: Only in the wilderness, when only you can hear them. People flocked to Merriam-Webster to look up “crawdads” after the author Celia Owens appeared on a television program to discuss her first book, Where the Crawdads Sing. That last one is probably the least well-known, but not the most unfamiliar. You might know it as a “crawfish,” “crayfish,” or “crawdad.” What you call it probably depends on where you grew up. No, it is not a baby lobster or an odd-looking shrimp. That’s why many crayfish fans suck the head in order to savor the flavors.Summer starts this week, a great time for a fish boil.

Crayfish fat, sometimes called head fat, is yellow and contains most of the flavor. As with lobster, the meat perishes rapidly after death. Softshell crayfish are those that have just completed the molting process. Crayfish meat is sweet similar to lobster meat but a bit more tender and not quite as rich. Limited amounts are farmed in Europe, Egypt and Spain. Fishermen in the Midwest trap the species in lakes. In California, fishermen trap coolwater crayfish in rivers that feed the Sacramento Delta. In China, crayfish are cultivated in ponds with other fish and sea life. Crayfish are also farmed and harvested wild in other southern states and in the Pacific Northwest. Approximately 90% of the United States farmed and wild crayfish production comes from Louisiana, where crayfish are caught in the wild and farmed as a dual crop with rice. Second is the white-river crayfish from northern Louisiana. species is red swamp crayfish, found in southern Louisiana. 400+ species are found worldwide, 250 of which are in North America, found in rivers, lakes, swamps, canals, wetlands, irrigation ditches, and even in some backyards. Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans that are basically miniature lobsters, ranging in size from 3.5 to 7 inches (including their outstretched claws).

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