[Sca-cooks] period crab recipes

Elaine Koogler ekoogler1 at comcast.net
Sun Jun 18 13:03:59 PDT 2006


Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
> On Jun 18, 2006, at 11:45 AM, Terry Decker wrote:
>
>   
>> The chief difference appears to be
>> that the Blue Swimmer is served as a hardshell crab, while the  
>> Chesapeake
>> Blue is most often served as softshell.
>>     
>
> Have you got any more info on this? It seems to me that the softshell  
> season is relatively short, and possibly no more than 25% of the  
> overall crabbing season. That, combined with the availability of lump  
> and/or backfin crabmeat from blue crabs, plus the popularity of  
> hardshell forms for steaming and in various Asian cuisines, makes me  
> wonder if this is a conclusion that is easier to draw in Oklahoma  
> than in Maryland or other MidAtlantic states.
>
> Adamantius 
>   
>   
Sorry for not trimming my previous post, but in this case, I wanted to 
reference both messages. 

What we see here in southern Maryland is that we get softshell crabs for 
a couple of months in the late spring/early summer...then hardshelled 
ones for the remainder of the crabbing season.  While softshell crab 
dishes are popular here during that time, the most famous way crab is 
served here (other than steamed with Old Bay seasoning..invented in 
Baltimore) is in crab cakes.  To be truthful, I have seen crab cakes on 
menus in other parts of the country, but prefer not to eat them anywhere 
except in certain restaurants in this area...these restaurants have huge 
chunks of meat held together with a minimum of filler...and with 
virtually no membrane.  They frequently are a tad smaller than a 
baseball and absolutely delightful. 

Kiri




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