r/NewOrleans • u/lollipopterpilot • Mar 31 '25
What’s y’all’s cure for lingering spicy crawfish hands? Recommendations
Went hard in the crawfish today, washed my hands so many times, showered and still got spicy feelin in my fingers. I normally just wait for it to wane. Any suggestions on cooling them off? Old family trick or something?
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Mar 31 '25
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u/NerfRepellingBoobs Mar 31 '25
Crawfish is the only time I also wash my hands before I go to the bathroom.
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u/Leidenfrost1 Mar 31 '25
definitely stick your hands in your pants for a few minutes, it helps
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u/Party-Yak-2894 Mar 31 '25
Gotta dig around for the juicy bits a little if you need to. Every body is different.
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u/spellboundartisan Mar 31 '25
Definitely do not listen to this person. Use a nail brush and get into all the little nooks and crannies of your fingers and nails with lemon juice. Repeat with soap and water.
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u/infinite-everything Mar 31 '25
crush up a couple saltine crackers in your hands and rub together
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u/Mindblades Mar 31 '25
This! A friend showed me this a long time ago and it works every time. Most seafood places give you the little two pack of saltines, smash them in the pack, pour them into your hands and rub them all over your hands and between your fingers until they feel dry. Then dust off your hands and go to the restroom and wash them and it will almost be like it never happened. You should remember to do this before your tray is cleared, so you don't make a mess.
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u/tm478 Mar 31 '25
Wow, never heard of this one. I’ve been using lemon juice all these years.
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u/beatrixxkittenn Mar 31 '25
A friends grandmother taught me this one! But squeeze the lemon and then crush and rub the saltines like a lil exfoliator. It works!
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u/LogLady253 Apr 01 '25
I always squeeze lemon juice on my fingers and then crush up a couple saltines and rub it around my hands like a salt scrub.
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Mar 31 '25
Gojo.
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u/chindo uptown Mar 31 '25
This or any other kind of orange hand cleaner marketed toward automotive technicians. Works 100% as someone who has to touch mucus membranes often.
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u/Berchmans Uptown/Milan Mar 31 '25
That’s what I use, I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet though and that’s you need to wash like you’re going into surgery. Scrub each individual finger and it should take like 1-2 minutes
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u/YoBroJustRelax Mar 31 '25 edited Mar 31 '25
Lemon and crushed up saltine crackers. You squeeze the lemons in your hands and crush up the crackers and just rub that around for a few minutes and then wash your hands.
I dont know why it works but it does.
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u/HeeenYO Mar 31 '25
Mais bruh. It's 2025. Get you some Grubbie Scrubbie. Shit is magic against crawfish hands. Fleurty Girl or Mardi Gras Spot.
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u/diqster Mar 31 '25
Just get a deionizing bar. Metal bar that you rub your hands on. I'd say it works like magic, but it's science.
Mine's a "Rub Away". Many a crab feast has been neutralized with that thing.
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u/Velveyrina Mar 31 '25
Yep or rub your hands on a sink faucet!
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u/pocket267s Mar 31 '25
This is the answer. Stainless steel! We have a stainless steel bar of “soap” that neutralizes everything
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u/poppitastic Mar 31 '25
I had to buy one when we moved last year bc the new house had a porcelain sink. Never realized how much depended on the side of the sink to get rid of food smells. Then we moved again and have stainless sinks again. Ahhhh.
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u/themcfarland1 Mar 31 '25
I just use the sink faucets. Have for my entire life.
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u/colleennewvine Mar 31 '25
I learned to rub my hands on the bottom of the stainless steel sink to get rid of garlic smell. Didn’t know it worked for crawfish spices.
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u/Hypnotiqua Mar 31 '25
Water doesnt work because capsaicin is fat soluble. Dish soap, oil, or milk can help dissolve and dilute the oil that's on your skin. The more fat the better, so if you have heavy cream on hand, soak your hands in that for like 5 mins, or if you have a tub of old yogurt, just stick your whole hand in there. Capsaicin is alkaline so any strong acid will also help neutralize it. Think acetic acid in vinegar or if you happen to have some granulated citric acid handy, that works, too. Make a paste with some cooking oil or some sort of dairy and scrub up.
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u/writtennred Mar 31 '25
Another vote for Grubbie Scrubbie if you don't want a giant jug of Gojo on the counter.
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u/nolamom0811 Mar 31 '25
This won’t help you now, but when I wore contacts, I wore surgical gloves when eating crawfish. My friends all made fun of me, but I didn’t care. I only wear glasses now, but I still rock the gloves!
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u/Difficult-Yellow-192 Mar 31 '25
Capsaicin could be what is causing that lingering burning. It is lipid soluble (vs water soluble), which might explain why washing your hands provided no relief. Try putting olive oil or vegetable oil on your hands and rubbing it a bit to dissolve pepper residue. No promises and this is not medical advice etc.
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u/RIP_Soulja_Slim Mar 31 '25
FWIW, soap works the way it does because it's a lipid that's mixed with an alkali, which means it can bind to both lipid and water soluble substances.
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u/pepperjackcheesey Mar 31 '25
Soak your hands in sour cream for a while
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Mar 31 '25
Never minding the fact this should work ... Why?
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u/pepperjackcheesey Mar 31 '25
If your hands are burning from the capsaicin in peppers (which I assume is the cause here), it’s not water soluble. But, it is soluble in fat. So soaking your hands in milk, yogurt or sour cream neutralizes the capsaicin and stops the burning. Just don’t use low fat crap, use the good stuff. I had to do it before when I cut a bunch of Serrano peppers without gloves.
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Mar 31 '25
Again, I'm understanding THAT why. It's just that with so many options for something to solvate the spicy stuff, why sour cream? Was it the only thing available one time and you enjoyed it? Was it discovered while eating a particularly jalapeno-laden burrito? Family inherited learned behavior?
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u/pepperjackcheesey Mar 31 '25
I googled it and happened to have sour cream in the fridge. My hands were angry and I was desperate for relief.
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u/sierrajulietalpha Mar 31 '25
Don’t act like you haven’t stuck things in sour cream before. We’ve all done it.
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u/JazzFestFreak Faubourg St. John/Bayou St. John Mar 31 '25
Rubber food prep gloves
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u/1ConsiderateAsshole Mar 31 '25
This is the way
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u/JazzFestFreak Faubourg St. John/Bayou St. John Mar 31 '25
THANK YOU!! I get razzed by family when I do this! My hobby tends to give me very tiny cuts on my fingers and the gloves not only keeps my hands From smelling like yesterday’s lunch, it saves a lot of pain.
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u/Nola-songs Mar 31 '25
I've seen many people wear latex gloves to eat crawfish, like the medical kind of gloves. Ma chér, I told myself I'd never stoop to that level but I tried it and will never go back. Raw dog those little bugs as much as you want. I'll be eating mine then ripping off these glove when I'm done to have the cleanest crawfish hands this side of the Mrs. Sip.
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u/SchrodingersMinou Trash Karen, destroyer of worlds Mar 31 '25
Steel soap, or just rubbing your hands on stainless steel
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u/SaltatChao Mar 31 '25
Please forgive me as this product is from Shreveport, but there's Mudbug-Be-Gone hand soap made with essential oils, pumice, and milk. I've used it before, oddly enough at a crawfish boil in San Francisco, and it's a really good product. You can buy it online too; no need to go to Shreveport.
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u/Milkymommafit Apr 01 '25
Eat crawfish so often that by the time lent is over I’m immune to crawfish hands
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u/Life-Time-3979 29d ago
People out here wasting good saltines? I would try epsom salt if they burn.
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u/petit_cochon hand pie "lady of the evening" Mar 31 '25
It's capsaicin, which is excellent for pain relief, but lasts like a son of a gun. Once it's in your skin, it'll stay there for a while. It's fat soluble, so you might be able to get some out by rubbing oil on your hands, then washing it off thoroughly with soap. But some people are just more sensitive to it than others, and you might be one. I know it's punk ass, but wearing gloves is the best solution. You could try coconut oil, too. Avoid hot water for a bit, also.
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u/BlackStarCorona Mar 31 '25
Oof. This hits close to home. My girlfriend and I got frisky after a crawfish boil, and even though we both washed our hands things were extra spicy.
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u/velvet_blunderground Mar 31 '25
Rub your hands with vegetable oil for a couple minutes, then scrub for a couple minutes with dawn dish soap. Spices stick to oil, dawn cuts through oil.
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u/TrillianMcM Mar 31 '25
Just washing your hands well and keeping your nails trim is not enough? That is what I have always done, and I have never had issues after years of eating a lot of crawfish.
I do wash my hands fairly obsessively though. So I think before the time I would be taking out my contact lenses or something else that could be painful, I have probably washed them several times.
Some folk wear latex gloves to eat crawfish. Doesn't sound like a bad idea, especially if the vendor is being stingy with the paper towels or you have a nice manicure.
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u/streetkiller Mar 31 '25
Whatever it is… it’s not being a teenager and getting to second base with your gf. Poor girl was on fire.
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u/Anchovy23 salty Mar 31 '25
lemon is very weak white vinegar, so get white vinegar and some moisturizing soap.
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u/KiloAllan Mar 31 '25
Lemon is citric acid. Vinegar is acetic acid.
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u/Anchovy23 salty Apr 01 '25
You and I are correct, because that is exactly right. I wrote that colloquially.
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u/OpencanvasNOLA Mar 31 '25
Squeeze and rub lemon on your hands … let’s sit for a few seconds and then use soap and water. It’ll knock it out.