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Buttered Crab
Remove the meat from a large boiled crab, cut it up small and mix with breadcrumbs and chopped parsley, having about a third of the bulk of the crab meat. Season and put a few pieces of butter over it; pack it back in the shell, pour over a little lemon juice, cover with a layer of sifted breadcrumbs, place a few more lumps of butter on the top, set in a slow oven and cook until done.
A dressed-crab gratin with no quantities and no times, which is normal for Oscar Tschirky's shorthand. The only real decisions are how much filler to add and how long to leave it in the oven.
- What matters mostThe crab is already cooked, so the oven is only heating the mixture through and browning the top. Much past 20 minutes and the meat starts to dry out.
- "A slow oven"In this period that means roughly 300-325F. For a gratin that needs colour, 350F for 15 minutes and a minute or two under the broiler at the end gives a better result than a long slow bake.
- Proportions"About a third of the bulk" refers to the breadcrumbs and parsley together, not each. For the meat of one large crab, figure around 2 cups picked meat to about two-thirds cup soft crumbs plus 2 tablespoons chopped parsley.
- Two kinds of crumbsThe crumbs mixed into the meat should be soft and fresh so they absorb juices; the "sifted breadcrumbs" on top are dry and fine, and they are what browns.
- The shellThe recipe names no species, only "a large boiled crab." A Dungeness or European brown crab has a top shell sturdy enough to bake in; scrub and dry it first. Blue crab shells are too small and too thin; use ramekins or scallop shells.
- SeasonThe original leaves this open. Salt, white or cayenne pepper, and a scrape of mace are the usual choices for a dish of this kind; hold the salt until you have tasted the meat, which is already saline.
- Butter"A few pieces" and "a few more lumps" comes to roughly 3 tablespoons total for one crab. Dotted rather than melted, the pieces baste the crumbs as they go.
- YieldOne large crab shell serves one as a main course or two as a first course. Serve hot, in the shell, with lemon.
Buttered crab belongs to a long English line of "buttered" shellfish dishes, going back to seventeenth-century receipts in which picked crab or lobster meat was reheated in butter with a little vinegar or verjuice and returned to the shell. Oscar Tschirky was compiling his book at the Waldorf around 1896, and the terseness of his entry is characteristic of the volume.