No. 1006

Soft Shell Crabs, Broiled, Ravigote Butter, Fried, Sauted in Butter

Crabes Moux Grilles, Beurre Ravigote, Frits, Sautes au Beurre

Wash the crabs, being careful to pick off all the seaweed, and pull out the lungs; wipe dry. Lay them on a double broiler, salt over and baste with butter, broil them on a slow fire, and when done, dress on a hot dish and cover with ravigote butter (No. 583).

Fried.—Wash the crabs, remove the lungs from both sides and dip into milk, then roll in flour and fry in plenty of very hot frying fat. When of a fine color, drain and dress on a folded napkin, and on top arrange a bunch of fried parsley.

Sauted in Butter.—After the crabs have been well washed, remove the lungs from each side, roll them in flour, and saute them in very hot purified butter (No. 16); when done and of a fine color, dress and to the butter in which they were cooked, add some lemon juice; strain this butter through a strainer over the crabs, and strew chopped parsley on them.

CRAWFISH OR CRAYFISH (Ecrevisses).

This crustacean has the head and the corselet blended in one single piece, having attached five pairs of feet; the tail is more or less apparent. Crawfish are aquatic and turn red when cooked. Persons suffering from a weak stomach should avoid partaking of them, as they are very indigestible, but they are delicious for those who are able to indulge in them. They are useful for decorating cold dishes and entrees, and are used by themselves in the form of pyramids.

← No. 1005 Oyster Crabs Fried a la Newberg or a la Sala Crabs No. 1007 Crawfish a la Bateliere →

For the Modern Kitchen

Three treatments of the same crab, from Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen. The cleaning is identical in all three and is where most of the work lies.

The "lungs" are the gillsLift the pointed tips of the top shell on each side and pull out the feathery grey gills, which are unpleasantly spongy. Also snip off the face just behind the eyes and pull the apron from the underside; Ranhofer assumes a cook who already knows this.
Broiling temperatureA "slow fire" is probably best read as moderate rather than genuinely cool: enough heat to color the shell without scorching the butter. Reckon on roughly two to four minutes a side for a medium crab, until the shell has gone red-orange and the legs are firm.
The double broilerThis is a hinged wire basket that closes over the food and is turned as a unit, not a modern overhead broiler. A hinged fish grill or a cage grill basket does the same job and keeps the soft bodies from tearing.
Ravigote butter (No. 583)A compound butter worked with blanched chopped herbs — tarragon, chervil, chives, parsley — and shallot. Make it ahead, chill it, and slice coins over the hot crabs so it melts at the table.
Purified butter (No. 16)Clarified butter. The milk solids are removed so it can be taken to sauté heat without burning; ordinary whole butter will blacken before the crabs color.
Deep-frying fat"Very hot" means 350-375F. The milk-and-flour coating is thin and browns fast, so figure two to three minutes total, and drain on a rack rather than the folded napkin if you want the crust to stay crisp.
Fried parsleyDry the sprigs thoroughly before they go into the fat; wet parsley spits violently. A few seconds is all it needs — it should stay green, not brown.
Sourcing and yieldSoft-shells are blue crabs taken just after molting and are seasonal, roughly late spring through summer, sold live or freshly cleaned. Allow two to three medium crabs per person as a main course.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summation of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its crab chapter is one of the places where a classically French kitchen visibly absorbs an American ingredient. The soft-shell crab is not a species but a stage: the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, in the hours after it has shed its old shell and before the new one hardens, which is why the whole animal can be eaten. The commercial trade in them grew up around the Chesapeake and the mid-Atlantic shores in the second half of the nineteenth century, when shedding floats and fast rail shipment made it possible to get living crabs to city restaurants. Ranhofer treats them exactly as he would a small French fish — grilled with a compound butter, floured and deep-fried, or sautéed meunière with lemon and parsley — which tells you how the borrowing worked in both directions. The digression on crawfish that follows, with its warning to weak stomachs, is characteristic of period cookbooks, which routinely mixed cooking instruction with dietary opinion.