Hey Larry

[LarryWolfe]

I was looking in the seafood section for those crab stuffed shrooms, (I hope it get's posted soon!) and saw your way of doing Md. crabs. Have you ever killed/cleaned them before you steamed them?

While the crab is still alive, grab the backfin, put a knife between where the tail and top shell meet, twist the knife and pull off the shell.
Slice the knife down the middle from head to backfin to kill it.
Clean out mustard, remove lungs, all those little things around the mouth and eyes, pull off the tail.
Steam them the way you describe, and all the seasoning get's on the meat better. That's the way my dad does it, and it is real popular in his area it seems.
The trade off is, the meat is a little softer, borderline mushy if over cooked. I prefer the old fashion way, but for people that don't like the mustard (my Mom) they love it.
No, I have never been pinched yet. I'm looking for wood to knock on right now lol.

Bob, Gary in Va., made the mushrooms. We'll have to beg together for the recipe. They were great!!! Lots and Lots of crabmeat!!

I've never cleaned the crabs prior to cooking them. However when I lived in NC, that was the only way the majority of the folks ate them. I continuously looked at them like they were crazy!! When you eat crabs it should be on a picnic table with plenty of cold beer and getting messy picking the crabs! Man now I wanna go by a bushell of crabs and sit around a pick them all day!!! BTW, I'm a mustard lover too!!!

 

[Larry D.]

Larry, you need to rotate your Confucious quotations. That one's getting a little old.

How about, "Confucious say, man who go to bed with sex problem, wake up with solution in hand."

 

[Bill The Grill Guy]

I love steamed crabs. When we go to Ocean Island NC every year I usually steam 6 doz crabs and 10lbs of shrimp. Love being at the ocean.

 

[LarryWolfe]

Bob it depends on where you get the crabs. You get what you pay for with crabs. If the price is cheap you're getting cheaper crabs. My dad has a crab feast every year. He lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, St. Michaels. Last year he got a bushell of local #1 Males out of the Miles River a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay and he paid $140, they were some of the biggest, meatiest crabs I've ever had. He got a bushell this year for $65. The crabs were very small, light, and 75% of the claws had fallen off and the shells were all paper thin. Those were obviously not local to the Chesapeake Bay and were from N.C., S.C. or La.