BATON ROUGE - A hot debate over how crawfish should be boiled is dividing the state of Louisiana. Are dusted crawfish a disgrace to tradition?

"This is how I feel about dusted crawfish, if your water and seasonings are right, you don’t need to add anymore,” boiler Branden Barker said.

“I travel a lot for work. I went to Texas and got nothing but dusted crawfish and I missed home. I was ready to come home to Louisiana,” boiler Stephen David said.

“Dust is what it is, dust. It’s trash, you have to let them soak, get that good flavor and when you bust the tail open all that juice comes out the head.. It’s so good, it’s magical,” boiler Kendell King said.

Friday was the ninth annual Crawfish King Cookoff, an event that benefits Big Buddy and Junior Achievement by putting the top boilers in Baton Rouge head to head for bragging rights of the best crawfish in the city.

“Everybody is so pumped up about Crawfish King, because one they want to win and two they’re doing it for a good cause. So they come out, they’re ready to compete, some of them really get into it so it’s really fun to watch them have a good time and it supports Baton Rouge,” Development Director of Junior Achievement Ally Smith said.

Out of all the tents and crawfish to try, only one boiler was brave enough to serve them dusted.

“Look if you ain’t dusting you ain’t doing it right. You got to take that dust and get a nice dusting. You close that lid it steams up and it all melts into that crawfish. You want flavor? You got to dust,” boiler Cole Brewton said.

One brave man was willing to try out the dusted crawfish for WBRZ.

"I don’t like it, too salty,” boiler James "Big Brown" Joseph said.