The crab feast is perhaps the Bay’s
most hallowed tradition. Here’s
how to throw a crab feast worthy to be called Chesapeake.
• Get plenty of fresh, meaty blue
crabs. Number One “Jimmies” (the biggest,
meatiest male hardshell crabs) are the best. A bushel
of these heavy crabs usually feeds 10 to 12. Make sure
the crabs are lively. And never cook or eat a crab that
was DOA; you can’t be sure how fresh it is.
• Keep the crabs cool until you
get them in the pot. Put them in a cooler on a layer
of ice with a “shelf” on top of the ice
to keep the crabs out of the water. (If the crabs get
in the water, they’ll use up the water’s
oxygen and suffocate.)
• Stagger your cooking time so
your crabs are always hot. First, steam and serve half
the crabs. While your guests are chowing down on those
crabs, steam the rest. They’ll be ready by the
time the first batch is gone.
• Use old newspapers to cover the table.
• Be sure to have enough mallets on hand. |
|
A
rookie’s guide to crab picking
Eating, or "picking," crabs is an art
that requires patience, practice and lots of Old Bay.
Try
a crab picking tutorial.
Crabmeat 101
Don't know your backfin from your claw?
Here's the scoop on the different types of crabmeat.
Lump: The biggest pieces of
meat from the crab's body, next to the backfin. Lump
is the most expensive crabmeat.
Backfin: The white body meat,
including lump and large flakes. Used in crab cakes
and crab imperial.
Special: Flakes of white body
meat other than lump. Used in crab cakes, soups, casseroles
and dips.
Claw: The brownish meat from
the claws is the cheapest crabmeat. Used in soups and
dips.
Keep
the crabs coming
Blue crabs are delicious - but they're
disappearing. Fortunately, simple steps such as using
lawn fertilizer properly and creating a Chesapeake
Yard can help make sure the crab feast is a Bay
tradition for years to come.
More on the Chesapeake crab feast |
