[Sca-cooks] Period crab recipes

Saint Phlip phlip at 99main.com
Mon Jun 19 08:41:54 PDT 2006


On 6/19/06, Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net> wrote:
> My son was always fascinated by catching Maryland crabs
> off my girlfriend's dock off the Chesapeake. He didn't like to eat to them,
> but he thought catching them with chicken wing tips was first rate fun.
> Of course when you are 5, catching crabs anywhere is fun.
>
> Johnnae

I never had softshells until I was an adult. Generally got them at The
Log Cabin, a lovely little restaurant on Rt 1 towards Fredericksburg
(VA) or at the local sea food shop in Fredericks burg. If you go
early, you can usually get them at any time of year.

Usually, though we'd just catch them. I remember using a crab net,
fishing all night off the dock at Monterrey (CA), back in the early
60s, or later, on Chincoteague (VA), using a fish head scrounged the
night before from a successful fisherman, and a simple net on a pole.
You throw the fish head (stinkier the better) out into shallow water,
attached to heavy string, then slowly twitch it in towards shore.
Water is clear enough that you can see any crabs following it, wanting
a free lunch, and you net them. Have caught bushels and bushels that
way.

That evening, you build a campfire, bring a big pot of water to a
boil, and throw them all in. Depending on season, you had to sort out
the males from the females (before cooking, obviously), and throw the
females back (easy to tell the difference- turn them over, and the
underside of their shells are very different).

Drain the pot, and start in with your tool of destruction ;-)

Forget crab cakes. Nothing beats fresh crab you've caught and cooked
yourself ;-)

-- 
Saint Phlip

Don't like getting old? Beats the Hel out of the alternative.

The purpose of life is not to arrive at the grave, a beautiful corpse,
pretty and well-preserved, but to slide in sideways, thoroughly used
up, totally worn out, proclaiming, "Wow! What a ride!"



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