[Sca-cooks] period crab recipes
Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Sun Jun 18 08:43:25 PDT 2006
On Jun 18, 2006, at 9:45 AM, Elaine Koogler wrote:
> Craig Jones wrote:
>> Assumptions:
>> • A small amount of salt was added to the steamed mix as I'm a salt
>> fiend...
>> • Blue Swimmer Crabs were used as the closest substitute to Charibdys
>> japonica available.
>>
>> What was ironic was it wasn't until after I traveled to the Barony of
>> Ildhafn (Auckland, New Zealand - go visit - play SCA where the
>> geographic
>> backdrops are straight out of LOTR) did I discover that Charibdys
>> japonica,
>> although impossible to find in Australia, is a serious pest in
>> Auckland
>> Harbour... Doh!
>>
>>
>>
> Thanks for sending this. Out of curiousity...how well would the
> Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab fit into this category. I have no idea what
> the scientific name is, but it's primo for making things like crab
> cakes, crab soup and she-crab soup, all very famous in this area.
>
> Kiri
Here's some info on the zoology of the Eastern blue-claw crab, common
and famous in the Chesapeake Bay but found around most of the Eastern
US coast :
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/education/crab/bluecrabfacts.html
And here's a page on Drakey's charybdis japonica:
http://www.fish.govt.nz/sustainability/biosecurity/pests/
crab_japonica.htm
It seems as if they're roughly comparable in size, with the largest
of the japonicas being slightly smaller than the largest of the blue-
claw crab (I'm using this term because it's the one I grew up with,
and to distinguish it from the crab species Drake referred to as a
blue swimmer crab -- blue-claw crabs are also blue and have swimming
paddles).
Adamantius (hmmmmm... promised crustaceans for Father's Day dinner...)
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