[Sca-cooks] Soft Shell Crab

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 10, 2010, at 4:44 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Has anyone spent any time looking through period crab recipes?

Not actively, but there are a few out there, and further evidence that they were eaten.

> Were soft shell crabs known and eaten that way in period?

I haven't seen any reference to soft-shelled crabs in Europe. I suspect it's a matter of different water, different species, and different habits. I expect that European crabs do molt and spend some time in a soft-shelled state, but I'm not aware of, nor is there any special reason to believe, that they make themselves as easily catchable as their Western Atlantic counterparts. They may be migratory and molt once a year or something, and be inaccessible at that time. Not sure, but not only have I seen no evidence for the availability, or even knowledge of, soft-shelled crabs in the period European sources, I'm not aware of any modern European lore regarding them, other than something yummy you eat when in America. That's pretty telling, I suspect.

> I assume crabs molt the same way and probably at a similar time in Europe as well as North America.

Not necessarily a safe assumption. The default classic European crab, unqualified by species name, is the French torteau, and more closely resembles a Dungeness crab of the American Pacific Coast, than a Western Atlantic blue crab. European crabs tend to be larger and rounder in shape. I have no idea if their molting habits are consistent with any increased ability to et at them in that state; nor, for that matter, is there any really compelling reason to think that such a large crab's version of a soft shell is as soft as the smallish blue crab.

That said, just as there are eighteenth-century recipes calling for a three-foot-long lobster, it may be that overfishing has driven down the size of a lot of these animals,  and maybe Chesapeake soft-shelled crabs were much larger a couple hundred years ago -- so who knows, right?

> A history of crab fishing in North America might also refer back to it being done in Europe.
> 
> What about crab cakes?

I STR Chiquart has a recipe for fried, stuffed crayfish tails (chopped, seasoned, stuffed back into the tail shells and fried, open side down, IIRC). That's probably the  closest to a crab cake that I have seen. For actual crab dishes, I think there's a 17th century English presentation of crabmeat seasoned with butter and vinegar, and packed back into the shell for serving, but I don't think it's fried or otherwise recooked in a solid mass.

Okay, great. Now I'm off to a doctor's appointment which will leave me at Grand Central Station just around noon. Will I be able to avoid either the Oyster Bar or the Grand Central Market seafood stalls? For some reason I'm thinking of white cheddar mac and cheese with Crab Imperial on the side...

Adamantius





"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter