Crayfish

Freshwater crayfish, écrevisse in France, krefte in Scandinavia, are found throughout Northern Europe in clean chalk streams. They look like miniature lobsters about three inches long, dark mud-brown when alive, a beautiful fiery red when cooked. (They are not much eaten in Britain, but can be caught by baiting a flat net with rotten meat or a bloater and leaving it on the river bed at night. Go off to the pub for an hour or so, then return with a torch, pull up the net quickly still keeping it flat, and the crayfish will be clinging to it.)