Tips On Crab Mauling

Tis the season for blue crabs in the lovely Chesapeake Bay watershed. This particular delicacy is not for those with delicate sensibilities. Good crab eating requires you to buy combative live crabs and steam the crab while alive (animal rights activists would faint!).

Furthermore, eating blue crab requires fussing with a hot, scaly, spiny creature with eyes that look back at you. It requires some specialized knowledge about crab anatomy, so that you don't eat the gills or throw away the delicious roe. Most importantly, it requires infinite patience as you tease meat out of every little cavity at the rate of 1 crab every 30 minutes.

In other words, blue crab eating is an activity that my crab loving but lazy (and rather clumsy) boyfriend has completely given up on. He does not like with the violent tearing of exo-skeletons. He has no patience with extracting the little pieces of fin meat and nibbling on the legs. Blue crabs are not for him.

He prefers crab cake.

If you've never eaten blue crab, you should do some googling to start. I offer tips, but it's hard to blog about something that requires hands on instruction.

The first and most important tip on crab mauling (that is, you mauling into the crab, not vice versa) is get a big tong (at least 10" long). Do not attempt to handle by hand.

The second tip is to use warm water (100-110F) to wash the crabs. They will be much less active if they're washed in warm water.

The third tip is to pick female crabs and learn to enjoy crab roe. Americans prefer males (the fools!) but Asians will tell you that the roe is the best part of a crab.

The fourth tip is to buy crabs only between September 20 and November 30th. Don't buy crabs in the summer, they're molting and growning and often tastes watery (sometimes you get lucky and find some good eating in June, but fall brings out the really exceptional crabs).

The fifth tip is that if you get very good at peeling crabs and find a good bargain (like 99 cents a pound at Grand Market in Gaithersburg, MD), you can double bag and freeze meat and roe you pick out for up to 2 months. They're good to add to noodles, soups, and stir fry. You don't need much, one ounce of meat and roe per person is sufficient for flavor. I find this tastes much much better than canned or "fresh" pasturized crab meat.

The sixth tip is always steam your crab and don't let the crab touch water directly.

The seventh tip is to dip the crabmeat into a balsamic vinegar and minced ginger mixture (or rice vinegar + sugar + minced ginger). The Chinese say this warm mixture combats the coldness of the crabmeat. I actually eat crabs with no flavoring at all, but you should try this traditional mixture at least once.

The eighth tip is to eat crabs on top of thick layers of newspaper. Crab eating is messy and the newspaper soaks up a lot of the juices and shells. Dispose everything in a dumpster. If your trash is frequented by raccoons or alley cats, double bag and keep the bag indoors until trash day. Otherwise, they will pick the bag apart.

That's all I can think of for now. If you have any questions about eating blue crabs, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you in the comment section.