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Broiled Devilled Soft Shell Crabs
Remove spongy parts under side points, tear off aprons, wash thoroughly and drain on a cloth twelve fresh soft shell crabs. Mix on a plate a tablespoon oil, teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Repeatedly roll crabs in seasoning, arrange on a double broiler and briskly broil for two minutes on each side, remove, evenly spread on both sides a devilled butter, roll them in bread crumbs, and broil again for two minutes on each side. Remove and dress on six freshly prepared, trimmed toasts, decorate with six quarters lemon and a little parsley greens and serve.
A Delmonico's-style treatment of soft shells: two short passes under the fire, a mustard butter between them, crumbs to finish. The whole thing takes less time than heating the broiler.
- Cleaning the crabsThe "spongy parts under side points" are the gills, reached by lifting each pointed end of the top shell; the "apron" is the flap on the underside. Modern practice also snips off the face just behind the eyes, which the original leaves in place. Buy them alive or ask the fishmonger to clean them and cook the same day.
- The devilled butterThe recipe never specifies it, taking the preparation as known. A devilled butter of the period is conventionally softened butter worked with mustard, cayenne, a little Worcestershire, lemon and salt. Something in the region of 4 tablespoons butter to 2 teaspoons mustard and a good pinch of cayenne will cover twelve crabs, though the original leaves the proportions to the cook.
- Double broilerThis is a hinged wire grill basket that clamps the crabs between two grids so they can be flipped as a unit, not a double boiler. A wire rack set over a sheet pan works; turn the crabs individually with tongs.
- Heat and timingEight minutes total is on the long side for crabs under about four inches. Work close to a fully preheated broiler and judge by colour: the shell turns pink-orange and the legs crisp. Cut the second pass short if the first browned them well.
- CrumbsDry white breadcrumbs, not the coarse panko sort, so they sinter into the devilled butter rather than scattering. Press them on and go straight back under the heat before the butter melts off.
- SpittingSoft shells hold water and will pop under direct heat. Drain them properly on the cloth as instructed and stand back when you open the broiler.
- YieldTwelve crabs on six toasts serves six as a course, two crabs each. Cut the toast to roughly the footprint of the crabs so it soaks the butter that runs off.
Alexander Filippini spent decades in the Delmonico's kitchens in New York, and The International Cook Book (1906) reflects a restaurant that took the Atlantic blue crab seriously. Soft shells are not a species but a stage: the crab has just moulted and its new shell is still papery, a short window before the shell begins to harden that made them a strictly seasonal luxury from late spring through summer, shipped up from the Chesapeake packed in damp grass. "Devilled" had by then long been English culinary shorthand, meaning treated with mustard and cayenne and usually finished at a fierce heat; the eighteenth-century sense was closer to a hot grilled savoury than to any particular sauce. What dates the recipe is the assumption behind it, that a cook reading it already keeps devilled butter to hand and knows what a double broiler is, so neither needs explaining.