Baked Crabs
Break the claws off the crabs, open the shells, and remove the spongy fingers and stomach. Pick the fish out, and cut into small pieces. Mix a little rich gravy with it, or cream, if you have it; add some curry paste and bread crumbs; salt and pepper to taste. Fill the shells, and bake.
A late-Victorian devilled crab, written for a cook who already knew how to dress a crab and needed only the seasoning idea. The instructions assume knowledge the modern reader may not have, and give neither oven heat nor time.
- "Spongy fingers"These are the gills, the pale feathery strips lying along each side of the body once the top shell is lifted. Pull them off with the stomach sac and the hard membrane behind the mouthparts; all are inedible, though not poisonous.
- Use the brown meat too"Pick the fish out" means all of it: the white meat from body and claws, and the soft brown meat from inside the top shell. The brown carries most of the flavour and binds the mixture.
- The shellsScrub the emptied top shells and scald them before filling. If they are cracked or you are working with picked meat, ramekins or scallop shells do the same job.
- Curry pasteA Victorian curry paste was a thick, oily, vinegar-sharp preserve of spices, closer to a Madras-style paste than to a dry powder. Start with about a teaspoon per crab and taste; the mixture should be warm and savoury, not dominated by spice.
- ProportionsFor the meat of two medium crabs (roughly 8 oz picked meat), 3 to 4 tablespoons of gravy or cream and 2 to 3 tablespoons of soft breadcrumbs give a mixture that holds its shape without being pasty. Keep a spoonful of crumbs back to scatter on top, with a few dots of butter.
- Oven and timeThe heat is unstated. A hot oven, 400-425F, for 15 to 20 minutes is right: everything is already cooked, so the aim is to heat through and brown the crumbs.
- YieldTwo filled shells serve two as a first course, or one as a light main dish with bread and lemon.
Baked or "devilled" crab in the shell appears in English and American fish cookery through the nineteenth century, and its logic is thrift: crab meat is laborious to pick and goes a long way when bulked with crumbs and a little cream, and the shell is a ready-made baking dish. The curry paste reflects the Victorian taste for bottled pastes and chutneys, which were used to "devil" cold or leftover fish and meat. Compilations of this sort gathered such formulas in a few lines each, assuming a reader who already knew how to dress a crab.