Blue Crab

Hi,

I bought 8 crabs today @ $3.32/lb - roughly 3.5 pounds, which yielded 2 quarts of crab stock, 1/8 cup roe and just short of 9 ounces of meat. If I did not take into the account the value of the stock, I'm not sure it was worth the effort to carefully pick those crabs.

To make the She-Crab soup these are intended for, I will crack open the 1 pound can of Crab I bought at Costco for around $13, which really looks like a bargain now.

Evil - I hope your around to comment because you understand the value of blue crab meat.

Regards,

9 oz of meat from eight crabs? That seems unbelievable, but the internet confirms that proportion of picked-weight.

About eighteen to twenty crabs when cleaned will produce a pound of crab meat (two cups).

from: http://www.vims.edu/adv/ed/crab/pick.html

No wonder I can eat 8-10 crabs at a sitting. You run out of patience picking before you get full of crab.

Cathy2 wrote:To make the She-Crab soup these are intended for, I will crack open the 1 pound can of Crab I bought at Costco for around $13, which really looks like a bargain now.

C2,

My daughter's boyfriend requested crab cakes for his birthday, so we bought two cans (lbs) of the Costco crab, and made a whole mess o' cakes. It's a pretty good deal. The meat was full white, firm, and good.

Hammond

Seth Zurer wrote:9 oz of meat from eight crabs? That seems unbelievable, but the internet confirms that proportion of picked-weight.

About eighteen to twenty crabs when cleaned will produce a pound of crab meat (two cups).

from: http://www.vims.edu/adv/ed/crab/pick.html

No wonder I can eat 8-10 crabs at a sitting. You run out of patience picking before you get full of crab.

Hehe, that's why growing up I quickly learned there are two kinds of ways to pick crab in a group. With the crabs spread across a newspaper-lined picnic table one could "pick and eat", that is as the crabmeat was removed just gobble it down. The other way was more careful and methodical - picking the crab meat and placing it into a container till you had enough to pause and have a mini-meal before returning to the picking. There was a 3rd way - the 1st kind of picker would wait until the 2nd kind of picker was distracted and then grab their stash. This is not recommended, though; people that practice the 3rd method are easily identified by the fork scars on their hands.

I was browsing Trader Joes today getting stuff to make for my mom while she recovers from knee surgery when I spotted the canned crabmeat. Remembering this thread I picked up a can and am planning on having crabcakes for dinner. Can't wait to see how they turn out.

I am also making braised tofu and black mushrooms as my girlfriend's daughter is going vegetarian. It should be an interesting combo.

Hi,

For my Mom's birthday this evening, I served the She-Crab Soup as a first course. The can of crab I had quietly kept in the rear of the refrigerator had disappeered without my notice. My sister brought a can of not-so-great crab from Asia which was not in chunks but tiny flakes. I used it for the 15 minute simmer. The expensive crab I picked was distributed between the bowls and the hot soup was pour over it to warm.

Fortunately the effort was worthwhile as everyone loved the soup. It is now a candidate for Thanksgiving rivaling the Morel Soup I was considering.

The balance of the dinner was pulled pork with wonder bread and a choice of sauces, creamed spinach and mashed sweet potatoes. Dessert was a dark chocolate cake, made with soft wheat flour which really made a difference in texture: very light almost like a cloud. I have made this cake before with all-purpose flour and it was more dense.

As with all dinners, the company and conversation rivalled the food.

Cathy,

I hear you loud and clear about cost vs. yield. The Atlantic blue crab must have one of the lowest ratios of meat to shell af any species, but I believe that the website which Seth has linked to refers to a smaller than average blue crab.

Keeo in mind that the "Costco" type of pasteurized crabmeat, available at a wide spectrum of sources, is not "blue crab", and while it's close, it isn't the real McCoy. For home use, I've bought pasteurized claw crab at T.I. for 10 to 11 a pound. This is the "shredded" stuff you refer to. At the club, we're paying about $21-22 right now for the Indonesian jumbo lump vs. $26 to even 28 for the fresh Md/Va/NC/La/Tx stuff, and we're paying about 7 to 8 for the claw. I use a 50/50 blend of the two types at The Standard Club in order to help keep the cost of crabcakes in line.

The biggest cost for crab producers is the labor for the crab pickers, which explains why the SE Asian stuff widely available is so cheap.

I've found that crab stock is a little like lobster stock. Get it on and off of the heat in a hurry, or you might end up with an expensive and bitter gray/green/brown/ murky liquid. I'd say no more than 45 minutes simmering time. A good quality commercial clam base will give you excellent results for "she crab soup", substituting more readily available lobster roe for the impossible to find crab roe. A good quality dry sherry like Tio Pepe will also help.





Chesapeake Bay Crab Melt

Split English muffins, preferably Wolferman's and butter them. Toast under the broiler and then spread the muffins with mayonnaise. Meanwhile, saute your choice of crabmeat in butter and season with Old Bay Seafood Seasoning and lemon. Spoon this onto the muffins. Top the crabmeat with sliced avocado and then sliced Vermont white cheddar, and return to the broiler until the cheddar is melted.

These are good for brunch, lunch, or a quick dinner.

Well, that explains my capacity for the all-you-can-eat blue crabs I had as a teenager visiting my grandparents in Miami.

At one point, we were convinced that you got fewer calories consuming them than eating them. At the very least, you could digest them faster than eating. If it wasn't for the boiled potatoes, bread, etc., they'd probably never get anyone out of the restaurant.

While I agree with Evil Ronnie that the Costco product is not quite like the blue crab I grew up with, (non-pasteurized) I find it a great value and quite a good product. Trader Joe's crab I found sorely lacking.

.....bought a couple of very lively little guys at Marketplace on Oakton today, specifically for shellfish stock - I've been collecting shrimp and crawfish shells in the freezer, and I thought this would be a great fresh addition. They're in the fridge now, sleeping; in the morning, I'll simmer them briefly, pick the crabmeat, break up the shells with a rolling pin, and add the shells back to the simmering water with the other shells, a little white wine, a bouquet garni, a shallot, and a carrot. The stock will go straight to the freezer, for use at Christmas for a very nice bisque, or maybe a gumbo.

Cost for the two crabs?

$1.08. Sweeeeeet.

Peg wrote:break up the shells with a rolling pin

Do you really think by breaking up the crab shells, they will release more flavor? I would certainly throw the shells back in, I'm just not certain about breaking them up. If anything, it makes filtering later just a little more challenging.

I'm sure your doing this as well, as Evil Ronnie said these only need a brief simmer to obtain the quality of stock you need. Go too long and stuff gets grey and bitter tasting.

The freezer, used effectively, is a culinary treasure chest. I keep shrimp shells also. I also store chicken necks and other bits in gallon zip-lock bags until they hit a critical mass, then I make chicken stock. I will freeze the fish stock, because it is so delicate. I will pressure can the chicken stock as well as stock from beef, lamb and vegetarian for my convenience.

Now two crabs for $1.09 - either these are tiny crabs or you hit a sale ... Last week, I left my crabs in the kitchen while I put stuff away. I forgot to mention there were live friends inside, so the cat and my Mother were on high mouse alert when I returned.

$3.49 per lb. After a brief simmer, I pulled them out, drained them, and let them cool, and put the shrimp and crawfish shells and remaining ingredients above into the crab water. Re the crabs, I pulled off the small legs and the aprons first and added them to the simmering shells; didn't bother cracking these. I cracked the remaining claw and carapace shells gently with the pestle part of my molcajete, instead of the rolling pin - better control - and added them to the stock, after first straining out the shrimp and crawfish shells. Simmered everything maybe half an hour all told. I'd say I have roughly half a gallon; it'll be strained once more through cheesecloth before I freeze it.

Freezers rule. I do the same as you do with chicken - in fact, I made an absolutely enormous pot of chicken last night with nearly all freezer chicken, save for about half a dozen big meaty legs that I bought yesterday at TI on the way home from the NU/Purdue game. Those were a buck, too - and I bought two 5-pound chickens for about three bucks each, as well. Bargain Day on the North Shore, I guess. A most excellent weekend for putting up food for the holidays.

I lived for one year on the delta between the Rappahannock River and the Chesapeake Bay. I had a crab pot that could convert one chicken neck into three to four crabs a day during the season.

I think that blue crabs are a lot of work if you need to get a lb of meat out of them.

Several of the women that worked for me in Virginia worked as crab pickers and could get 2-3 lbs of meat out per hour. After they were finished, the meat was passed through some machine that could detect any shell fragments. They were penalized for that.

some blue crabs from Naperville H-Mart, snapped up a little over 4 lbs. @ $2.99/Lb.

Did them 2 ways, some the basic steamed,

and also did a "Cantonese" style(lots of garlic, ginger, green onion, jalapeno, some fish sauce, , stock, etc..). in the wok.



hacked up a few of the crabs live for the wok:






nice supper:

Awesome. Especially like the nice "steam holes in the rice" shot.

Picked up 5.5#'s at H Mart, niles yesterday. Very Very lively, if they ain't 'kicken & screamin' litterally, then I don't purchase anyway. All females.
This time of year, no roe in the 'wings' which can be half of the food content at times and certainly vies for the white meat as to which is preferrred.
We generally use J. O. #2 X-HOT seasoning or the regular J. O. #2 over vinegar/water steaming mixture. The X-HOT is not really hot at all, just a litle spice. It's really as good as they say it is.
We also use a Thai preperation which requires a lot more work but can be deadly.
I wish I had a good fix on the 'roe' season.-Dick
BTW, if you enjoy blue crab, either hard or soft shell, or just plain great writing, the following book is for you,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Swimmers

budrichard wrote:Picked up 5.5#'s at H Mart, niles yesterday. Very Very lively, if they ain't 'kicken & screamin' litterally, then I don't purchase anyway. All females.
This time of year, no roe in the 'wings' which can be half of the food content at times and certainly vies for the white meat as to which is preferrred.
We generally use J. O. #2 X-HOT seasoning or the regular J. O. #2 over vinegar/water steaming mixture. The X-HOT is not really hot at all, just a litle spice. It's really as good as they say it is.
We also use a Thai preperation which requires a lot more work but can be deadly.
I wish I had a good fix on the 'roe' season.-Dick
BTW, if you enjoy blue crab, either hard or soft shell, or just plain great writing, the following book is for you,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Swimmers

What is "J. O. #2 X-HOT"?

fropones wrote:

budrichard wrote:Picked up 5.5#'s at H Mart, niles yesterday. Very Very lively, if they ain't 'kicken & screamin' litterally, then I don't purchase anyway. All females.
This time of year, no roe in the 'wings' which can be half of the food content at times and certainly vies for the white meat as to which is preferrred.
We generally use J. O. #2 X-HOT seasoning or the regular J. O. #2 over vinegar/water steaming mixture. The X-HOT is not really hot at all, just a litle spice. It's really as good as they say it is.
We also use a Thai preperation which requires a lot more work but can be deadly.
I wish I had a good fix on the 'roe' season.-Dick
BTW, if you enjoy blue crab, either hard or soft shell, or just plain great writing, the following book is for you,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Swimmers

What is "J. O. #2 X-HOT"?

http://www.marylanddelivered.com/jospice.htm

Actually http://www.jospices.com/index.php

Grew up in Maryland (though not close to the Bay); when I was stationed in Norfolk we would catch our own at a pier on a nearby beach. Blue crab ("Beautiful Swimmer" is the translation of their latin name,) and as said above,
You run out of patience picking before you get full of crab and in my opinion, you could possibly starve to death while working your way through a big pile of blues. Can't deny the great flavor of live, cooked ones, though.

When we moved to the west coast we discovered Dungeness crab, which I like better than lobster. Living on an island near Seattle, we could catch them in our front yard at low tides during the winter. Those were the days!

Our local Costco frequently has cooked, whole Dungeness at their weekend seafood specials at a pretty reasonable price. The local asian market in Westmont sometimes has live ones - but they cost as much as lobster.

Their meat is much larger and more plentiful than blues, and much easier to pick. The flavor is wonderful. When our son lived in Houston, live were usually available at a good price, and he liked to drop them in boiling water to calm them down, then crack the shells thoroughly and massage in some softened butter with a lot of garlic, and finish cooking on a mesquite-smoky grill. He served them with more garlicky melted butter. Those, too, were the days!

Evil Ronnie- if Dungeness is available from your supplier (Supreme?) I urge you to give it a try in your kitchen. It would be great in a half avocado with a nice Remoulade sauce (I like Emeril's recipe) and perhaps a lemon wedge or two. I'm guessing that it would be at least a little cheaper than blue crab meat. The Ranier Club in Seattle traditionally serves shrimp that way, and I'm sure crab would be every bit as good.

Mike

MikeLM wrote:You run out of patience picking before you get full of crab

In my experience, you get drunk long before you run out of patience or get full.

-Dan

Actually, that was the comment of Seth Zurer; don't want to take credit for another's quip.

My quip was that, based on my experience eating my way down the Eastern Shore several times, as well as in Norfolk, you could starve to death before you could get enough sustenance out of a pile of blues.

Fun to try, though. The trick for survival is to have enough beer available to keep you going.

Mike

I do not care for dungeness pre-cooked.
H-Mart has them live from time to time. Garlic butter ala Bob Chinn's is the key.
BTW I no longer go to chinn's, supply and quality became unreliable,-Dick

I grew up in SF with Dungeness. Stationed on Chesepeake Bay in the service, had the locals. Snows forever in Québec.

Kings are the ONLY crabs worth spending your pickin' time on.

IMHO, of course.

Go

Dungeness has to be at the top of the list for me, I believe i read they have the highest meat to shell ratio of any crab. I dig the lump from the body as well as the treat of some roe.

Blues, I dig them as well, probably my second favorite, great taste, & alot of work, but I enjoy sipping some cold ones, cracking/shelling crabs and chatting with folks.

i used to be big on snow crab and king crab, nowdays I prefer crabs I get to cook live.

Having spent some time in the fishing business I still can't say what my favorite crab is but some of my favorite memories are full dungeness crab pots set just a couple hundred feet from the shore somewhere out in the Aleutian Chain. It was the one time that I had access to far more crab than I could consume, and it was ethereal. I can confirm that there is no cause for starvation with access to dungeness crab. Hopefully I will get to test the theory some day with soft shell.

One of my two favorite departed eateries was a place in Melbourne, fl that was cheap for students. We always hit in season for all you could eat blue crab. It was a several hour affair, and cheaper than eating at the dorms. Crabs came out on huge platters and were dropped onto the table. remnants were swept off into garbage bins, and the bins were dumped into a grinder and mixed with manure. The owner once told me he made as much profit on the fertilizer as he did with food. The owner went upscale, moved to the beach and went bankrupt soon after I graduated.

There was also a great oyster place in Palm Bay. Wed. Nights they had two large buckets of steamed oysters and a six pack of beer for just double what a six was by the school. *memories*.

I never met a crab I would not eat except for a horseshoe crab.
Jonah, blue, dungeness, king crab, hairy or whatever.
King is my favorite if gotton alive which is very difficult to do in Chicago, dungeness is second with large Jonah and then blue.
All must be alive.
Of course soft shelled blues are in another category, sublime if truly alive and moving.
We used to bait nets with scrap fish and lower into thw water from the piers around Boston, wait and then haul in with Jonah crab.-Dick