Home › Shell Fish › Crabs To Boil Crabs
Crabs To Boil Crabs
Take one dozen heavy crabs and boil for three-quarters of an hour. When done and cold, twist off the claws, take off the upper shells and remove the spongy substance on the outside. See that the under part is free from sand. Arrange them nicely on a flat dish, garnish with parsley, and serve with them oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, allowing each person to dress one's own. 12 nice, heavy crabs ½ pint of cream
A straightforward cold crab platter, but the timing belongs to an era of very generous boiling and one ingredient line appears to have wandered in from a neighbouring recipe.
- Three-quarters of an hour is far too longHard-shell blue crabs need 10 to 15 minutes in boiling water depending on size; a large Dungeness runs 15 to 20. Forty-five minutes turns the meat stringy and waterlogged and makes it harder to pick, not easier.
- The stray creamThe ingredient list ends with "1½ pint of cream," which has no place in the method and appears to be a printing error. Ignore it.
- "Heavy" crabsWeight in the hand is the period test for a crab that has not recently moulted. A light crab of the same width has a thin shell and little meat; buy by heft, and buy them alive and active.
- Salt the waterThe original says only "boil." Boiling in well-salted water (roughly 1/4 cup salt per gallon) is the usual modern practice.
- "The spongy substance"These are the gills, the feathery grey lungs along each side of the body, sometimes called dead man's fingers. Scrape them away with a thumb, along with the stomach sac behind the mouth, and rinse the body cavity.
- The dressing at tableOil, vinegar, salt and pepper served separately is a plain vinaigrette assembled by each diner. Have the oil and vinegar in cruets and offer lemon as well; the crab should be thoroughly cold before it goes out.
- YieldA dozen crabs will serve roughly four to six, depending on their size, with bread and butter alongside.
Cold boiled crab dressed at the table with oil and vinegar is a dish often associated with American summer cookery, and its presence here says a good deal about the book it comes from: cooking for hot weather was a familiar preoccupation, when a coal range made a July kitchen unbearable and cooks were advised to boil once, early, and serve everything cold. Crab suited that programme perfectly, being cheap and abundant along the Atlantic and Chesapeake coasts and requiring no further cooking. Leaving each diner to dress the meat also shifted the last of the labour out of the kitchen and onto the diner. The oil-and-vinegar service stands apart from the mayonnaise or mustard sauces that later dominated.