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Hard-Shelled Crabs
If you like to dissect hard-shelled crabs by the score simply drop them in a deep kettle of boiling water one at a time, so the water doesn't stop bubbling, and cook 20-25 minutes. The crabs must be alive and kicking, of course, just as eels must be alive and wriggling to be fit for the pot. The water must be salted and there should be plenty of it; also lots and lots of whole black peppers, a chili or two, any red pepper and redhot Tabasco, since crabs cannot have too much pepper in the cooking thereof. Use more of any or all kinds of pepper than you would dream of putting into anything else, and spill in a spot of vinegar, too, if you like.
In case you can't take the peppers you might use bayleaf, parsley and dried celery leaves instead but this is considered sissy by all honest crab crackers. When done to a blistering red, drain, rinse, cool and dissect at leisure; using a nut cracker on the claws and legs, and cutting off the top shell with its top boney sections to get at the meat with a fork. This is a deft way of doing it, although many still cling to the old smash and grab method. A neat way to break into a hard-shell, after yanking off its claws and legs, is to pull back the tail or apron from the underneath shell, break it off, remove top shell, split crab along crease down the center of its belly, cut hard membrane coverings from sections and use a sharpened stick or nutpick to get at the meat.
A campfire crab boil written for volume rather than precision. The essentials hold up; the timing and a few points of anatomy need adjusting.
- The one thing that mattersCrabs must go in alive, one at a time, into water at a hard rolling boil. A crab that has died before cooking begins spoils fast and should be discarded, not boiled.
- Cooking timeTwenty to twenty-five minutes is longer than most modern guidance. Blue crabs of ordinary size are usually given about 10-15 minutes from the moment the water returns to a boil, larger Dungeness roughly 15-20. The shells generally turn full red before the longer time given here.
- How much water and saltEnough to cover the crabs with room to boil freely, and salted hard; a commonly given ratio is about 1/4 to 1/2 cup coarse salt per gallon. The salt is there to season the crab as it cooks, so err on the generous side.
- The pepperWhole black peppercorns by the handful, dried chilies and a shake of hot sauce are all reasonable. A commercial crab boil seasoning or Old Bay does the same work in one step if you would rather not assemble it.
- Cleaning after cookingWhen the top shell comes off, scrape away the feathery gills along each side, the stomach sac behind the eyes, and the yellow-brown material if you dislike it. The soft mustard-coloured hepatopancreas is edible and prized by some, but it concentrates contaminants and is best skipped if the crabs came from unknown water.
- ToolsA nutcracker works, but a small mallet and a paring knife are faster on claws. A wooden board absorbs the shock better than a table top.
- CoolingDrain and rinse briefly to stop the cooking. The recipe has you cool the crabs and pick at leisure; some pickers prefer them still warm, others find chilled crab cleaner to handle.
- YieldReckon three to four medium blue crabs per person as a course and six or more for a picking feast. A dozen medium blue crabs will yield somewhere in the region of one to two cups of picked meat, depending on size.
Crab boiling of this kind belongs to a long-standing American shore tradition rather than to any one kitchen: a big pot over an outdoor fire, water hot with pepper, and newspaper spread on a plank table for the picking. The heavy pepper is generally traced to Gulf Coast and Chesapeake practice, where crab and shrimp boils were seasoned to the edge of endurance and the spice mixes eventually became commercial products. The author's teasing about the "sissy" alternative of bay leaf, parsley and celery leaf reads as a nod to a milder, court-bouillon style of cooking, though the recipe itself does not say where either practice belongs.