[Sca-cooks] Re: [Sca-cooks]soft shell crabs, was immersion blenders

[A F Murphy]

Now, I have a weird question, and I don't know if any of you can answer
it. I eat crab happily, No problem, Yes, the real stuff, not surimi...
I've picked it from the shell, I've had it in a Korean restaurant where
whole crabs had to be fished out of very spicy broth and managed with
chopsticks (I wasn't very good at that.)  I like it.

The one time I ate soft shell crab, I had a histaminic reaction. Not
serious, but very annoying. Now, I know perfectly well it is the same
animal. I avoided all crabs for quite a while afterwards, don't remember
when or why I ate them again... but they don't bother me. I didn't have
anything else that day I don't eat all the time, and this was a
different reaction than I have ever had to anything else in my life.

How can I possibly be allergic to an animal in one life-stage but not
the rest of the time? Does it secrete a chemical, or have different
hormones, or something? Not a major problem, soft shell crab has never
exactly been hard to avoid... doesn't sneak up on you! But it doesn't
make sense to me.

Anne

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

>
> Such a breed may exist, but blue crabs aren't it. The fact that they
> can be harvested with a soft shell is due to the fact that as they
> grow, they split out of their old, hard shell, with a new, soft shell
> underneath. It takes a while for that new shell to harden, and if you
> catch one at the right time (depending on your location, there's a
> season when this phenomenon is fairly common), it can be classified
> as soft-shelled. Soft-shells, a.k.a. busters, command a higher price
> because they're in great demand, and can be eaten whole, with less
> waste and more viable crabmeat per total ounce of crab body weight.
>
> Adamantius
>