"For some reason, a lot of people don't like to eat shit," said Jason in a video by the Louisiana Crawfish Company, which sells and ships crawfish to buyers in other states.
What he's referring to is the gritty black cord poking out of a crawfish's backside. Some people call it the "poop line" but it's actually called the hindgut and it's defined as a digestive tract.
While the hindgut does connect to the creature's poop shoot, experts say it's more unpleasant to eat than bad for you. In most wild crawfish, their hindgut is filled with dirt and sand, so for most people, it's more of a texture issue than sanitary.
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There are a couple of ways to remove the hindgut. Experts say the first is to soak your crawfish in salt water for an hour or aerated water for 24 to 48 hours, which will naturally purge anything inside of the hindgut.
The other is a bit more immediate. As Jason explains: "You see where the last piece of meat connects to the middle tail fin? You're going to squeeze right where that meat connects. Wiggle it back and forth until it detaches and then slowly pull it out."
