Crayfish

Écrevisse

What it is

The native European species was devastated by a plague carried in with American imports in the nineteenth century, and it has never recovered. Nantua built an entire sauce on it — the shells, pounded into butter, are the dish.

In the kitchen

Never discard the shells. Roasted and pounded into butter or simmered into stock, they are worth more than the meat.

Goes with

Butter Cream Thyme Tarragon Pike Shallot Tomato Chervil

Also used with

Buckler-leaf sorrel Egusi

In season alongside

Brill Arctic char Dentex Greater amberjack (kanpachi) Splendid alfonsino (kinmedai) Lobster

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