From Head to Roe

By Sarah Baird

Surprising friends with a new culinary delight ranks among life’s greatest pleasures for me. The thrill of vicarious discovery as they go from “I’m not so sure about this!” to grabbing a third, fourth and fifth enthusiastic bite is like reliving my own first time eating the delicacy all over again. Recently, I’ve been introducing as many people as I can to the mild, earthy flavors of Louisiana paddlefish “caviar,” gushing about why tinned Spanish sardines are mind-expandingly unctuous, and offering up the glittering, orange-hued jewels known as crab fat and roe at every family gathering.

Formally known as crab tomalley — the “guts” of the crab, if you will — crab fat is the sweet-meets-briny, gelatinous and ultra-rich innards that too many home cooks (and even chefs) have long overlooked, discarding it into oblivion when they should have been serving it up at a premium on gilded shells. Perhaps most precious of all these jiggly insides is the crab roe, which appears seasonally as pinprick-sized, bubble-like egg bundles in female crabs and, depending on who you ask, could put any fine Russian caviar to shame.

“Crab fat and crab roe are basically the same thing,” says Isaac Toups, owner of Toups’ Meatery in New Orleans and author of 2018’s Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking. “You can buy it, or you can harvest it yourself. Just crack open the carapace of a female crab and look for the golden nuggets. My mama likes crab roe better than the meat!”

And while, like Toups’ mama, I would count myself among the minority of diners who prefer the more viscous entrails of most seafood to the actual meat itself, cracking open the carapace (read: exterior shell on a crab’s back) and rummaging around for the gem-like pocket of roe inside a crab’s body is a little easier said than done for those of us who haven’t been treasure hunting for the stuff since childhood. But if you’re dedicated to going completely sea-to-plate — and getting your hands as dirty as possible along the way — there are a few tricks to remember for this labor-intensive extraction process.

Some people suggest boiling your crabs before attempting to remove the roe to make the carapace easier to remove. However, doing this runs the risk of making the crab fat you’re after congeal into a goopy, not-sotasty lump, so try to work raw if you can. Also, understand what you don’t want. While most of the unfamiliar parts of the crab’s interior are edible and delicious, the feather-like gills (or “lungs”) along the body’s interior are not for snacking. (An old wives’ tale posits that they’re toxic, but they just taste bad.) What will make your life a little easier is setting aside a small bowl dedicated to the crab tomalley before starting to work with the crabs; this keeps the messy situation more contained.

After putting your freshly purchased crab to “sleep” humanely, use a sharp kitchen knife to cut out the triangle-shaped section colloquially known as the “apron” from the crab’s belly. (This makes the carapace easier to remove.) Then, it’s showtime. Place your thumbs on either side of the crab’s top shell and, approaching from the back — that’s the side without the big front claws — muster up all the hand strength you have to pop the shell right off. (Typically, this works, but if you need to use an instrument like a knife to help, there’s no shame.) Underneath the carapace, like opening a chest full of gold, you’ll quickly discover the warm-hued crab fat and roe you’ve worked so hard to find.

Just like wine has its terroir and oysters have their signature regional bivalve flavor, the crab fat and roe from different crab varieties are surprisingly distinct. Blue crab fat skews delicate and sweet (a perfect jumping-off point for newbies), while green crab fat has a tangier, umami underbite, and Dungeness crab fat is rich and custardy.

One thing all crab roe and fat have in common, though, is their health properties. Much like other types of seafood, these crab entrails are chock full of omega-3 fatty acids, which help with everything from lung functioning to cardiovascular health, as well as protein and Vitamin A.

“To me, the best thing to do with crab fat or roe is to make crab fat butter. It really freezes well,” says Toups. “You can then pull it out when you want and use it for crab fat rice, which I always love, especially with couvillion. It’s also great to use for roasting oysters.”

Couvillion — the rich, brothy tomato based Cajun seafood stew, typically made with redfish and head-on shrimp — plated up with a heaping portion of crab fat-flavored rice is a snapshot of Gulf Coast decadence that’s unrivaled. (Bonus points if you incorporate some of the crab fat butter into the couvillion itself!) But seafood-atop-seafood layered dishes aren’t the only way to utilize the magic of crab roe.

In Vietnam, a crusty loaf of bread is often soaked in spiced crab fat then cubed and baked for a brackish bread pudding experience. Crab roe is traditionally a key ingredient in she-crab soup, and is also a popular addition to the Hong Kong breakfast porridge, congee. The roe from green crabs is called masinette in Venice and can be eaten straight from the shell, formed into a pate, or even sauteed with fresh local herbs.

Many Chinese diners revere dense and creamy crab fat as “ocean gold” both for its difficulty to harvest and, of course, price. In Suzhou, an eastern Chinese city, “crab roe cream” is an ancient combination of crab roe and cream braised in Shaoxing rice wine and seasoning that’s then mixed with lard and pepper. Initially created to preserve the crab roe before the days of refrigeration, the dish has grown increasingly popular in recent years. Crab roe tofu — soft bean curd cooked in a broth of (you guessed it!) crab roe — is a summertime delicacy in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and has become such a cultural touchstone that it’s a dish players can purchase (or cook!) in the role-playing adventure video game, “Genshin Impact.” And if real-deal crab fat and roe are elusive in China, snackers can always pick up crab roe-flavored sunflower seeds — a poppable staple — at convenience stores across the country.

Perhaps most famously, the late Anthony Bourdain devoured his fair share of crab fat at the legendarily cramped, 18-seat Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco, where he ordered an off-menu item known as the “crab back” — crab roe, liver and other innards served in the back shell of the crab — with plenty of fresh sourdough for dunking into the salty, custardy brine. “Unicorn juice,” Bourdain called it, “the brains, the fat, the magic.”

Toups likes to get an early start on incorporating his crab roe-spiked compound butter into meals, adding it to scrambled eggs in the morning or spreading it on biscuits. (Pro tip: Freeze your crab roe butter in an ice cube tray for easy-to-thaw, perfectly sized biscuit smearing portions.)

So sure, crab fat and roe might not have reached caviar levels of popularity here in the United States yet, but I’ll keep serving them up like the precious rarities they are, gaining a legion of converts one tiny spoonful at a time.