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Crabs
Crabs are in season from April to September, and in May they lose entirely the dryness of flesh for which they are noted during the winter months. The richest flavored crabs are those of medium size, say from six to ten inches in their broadest diameter. They should be boiled alive, being plunged into cold water, and, as the water warms, a handful or so of salt should be thrown in upon them, and when the water has been boiling for twenty minutes or half an hour, according to the size of the crabs, they may be considered sufficiently cooked. If placed in hot water at first, they are apt to throw off their claws by a violent jerk, and then the water would soak into the flesh and make it sloppy. After the salt is thrown in, the scum which rises to the top of the water should be carefully skimmed off. The claws of large crabs should be tied to prevent their opening and pinching or injuring each other. Crabs are usually sold ready boiled, which is, of course, a great convenience to the cook, whose next care is that of selection. The best crabs are always heavy, according to size; the claws and legs should be all on. They should be firm and stiff, and the eyes bright rather than dull. The male crab has larger claws than the female, but less body in proportion, therefore selection should depend upon whether the preference leans to white meat or to the more mellow liver and creamy fat which surrounds it. The female also has a much broader tail than the male.
This is Oscar's baseline treatment for hard-shell crabs — boiling, then buying and choosing them. The two things worth adjusting are the cooking time and the handling of the live animal.
- Cut the boiling timeTwenty to thirty minutes will leave the meat stringy and drained of flavor. Blue crabs are done in 8 to 10 minutes at a hard boil once the water returns to temperature; very large crabs, 12 to 15. The shell turns bright red-orange and the meat sets firm and opaque.
- The cold-water startOscar's reason is sound — crabs plunged into boiling water do shed claws, and open joints let water into the meat. Current practice for both welfare and texture is to chill the crabs in the refrigerator or on ice for 20 to 30 minutes until sluggish, then put them into already-boiling salted water so the cooking time is short and predictable. If you follow the slow-warming method as written, expect a longer, less controlled cook.
- How much salt"A handful or so" is on the order of a quarter cup, though the recipe gives no water quantity to measure it against. Chesapeake practice runs saltier still, and often uses a couple of inches of water with the crabs steamed above it rather than fully submerged.
- Size, and what he is measuringSix to ten inches "in their broadest diameter" means point to point across the spikes of the carapace, not front to back. A commercial "jumbo" blue crab today measures about 6 inches that way; a ten-inch crab is exceptional. Picked yield per crab is small, so allow a generous number of crabs per person at table, and expect to pick a good many for even a cup or two of meat for a dish.
- The "liver"What Oscar calls the mellow liver and creamy fat is the hepatopancreas, still sold and eaten as crab mustard. It concentrates contaminants more than the muscle does, which is why advisories in some waters recommend eating the white meat only.
- SeasonApril to September tracks the Atlantic blue crab's condition through the year; winter crabs are lean and light for their size. The heavy, hard, full crab he describes is a crab well past its most recent molt, which is why weight for size is the single best test at the counter.
- SkimmingThe scum is coagulated protein and it does no harm; skimming keeps it from settling back onto the shells and looking untidy. Ignore it if the crabs are going straight to the picking table.
- Tying the clawsStill worth doing with a live basket, though the simpler course is to keep the crabs cold and handle them with tongs from the rear of the shell.
Oscar Tschirky was the Waldorf's maître d'hôtel, not its chef, and his 1896 volume reads as a house reference for a New York kitchen buying off the East Coast markets — which is why a page like this spends more words on selecting a boiled crab from a vendor than on cooking one. The crab in question is almost certainly the Atlantic blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, then arriving in quantity by rail and steamer from the Chesapeake, where the soft-shell and hard-crab trades had grown into a serious industry after the Civil War. His sexing test is the one still used on the docks: the male's abdominal apron is narrow and pointed, the mature female's broad and rounded. The preference he lays out — larger claws and more white meat from the male, more mustard and fat from the female — reflects a period taste for the rich brown meat that American cooking has since largely abandoned in favor of lump.