Clawsome!

By Jillian Kramer

Southerners’ love of seafood — and crabs, especially — runs deep. Take Mike Moore, captain and owner of the Biloxi Shrimping Trip, who began his career checking crab traps as a child. “My brothers and I would sell our catch for $2 a dozen and thought we were making a killing,” Moore laughs. Though Moore cruises the water mostly for all fish now, crabs are still close to his heart. He jokes that — should he ever be captured and tortured for confidential information — it would only take a dozen blue crabs (a true delicacy across the Gulf Coast) and a knife to make him spill the beans. “I will never get security clearance because of my weakness for blue crab,” Moore says.

Perhaps it’s crabs’ abundance that appeals to us. Between the most popular varieties, you’ll never have to go a single month without access to in-season crab. Perhaps it’s crabs’ ability to taste decadent with only a bit of melted butter — or nothing at all. As Moore says, “Crab done right is best served simply.” Perhaps it’s the communal aspect of eating crabs. In the South, “eating crab is a social thing,” Moore says, and Gerard Viverito, chef and director of culinary education for the nonprofit Passionfish, agrees. “The social aspect of sitting around, picking and eating crabs with friends and family, creates lasting memories,” he explains. Or perhaps it’s crabs’ versatility: It can be added to a green salad, boiled in a spicy pot, cooked into a cake or used to top a po-boy. But loving crab is different than knowing all about it. Where it comes from, what makes it ideal and how to prepare it are questions that can be common among home cooks who love crab but aren’t sure what kind to buy or how to eat it. Ryan Gaudet, chef of Spahr’s in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, encourages you to not be intimidated by cooking crab at home. Instead, start small: Purchase picked, ready-to-eat meat to test out different tastes and textures. Once you know what you love outside of a restaurant setting, “you can experiment with different recipes,” he explains.

No matter the crab you choose, there are some general rules to know as well. While it may seem obvious, it’s important enough to say: The larger the crab, the more meat there will be — and the easier it will be to get that meat off the body of the crab. If you’re new to cooking crabs at home, Viverito recommends starting with larger varieties. “The number 1 complaint that I hear from people is that the meat is not worth the work,” Viverito says. Start with larger varieties, then try others. You will “get better with practice,” he says, “and enjoy the journey like anything else in life.”

You will also have to make sure you have enough crabmeat to feed yourself and any guests. For all varieties of crab, Viverito recommends preparing about one pound of live crab per person. Then, leave enough time to cook what you’ve bought: As a general rule, a pound of crab needs 15 minutes to cook; two pounds needs 20 minutes; three pounds need 25 minutes; and four or more pounds needs 30 minutes or more, Viverito explains.

Now, let’s dive in — pun intended — to learn everything you need to know about the four types of crab that are carried at Rouses Markets: blue crab, Dungeness crab, king crab and snow crab.

Blue Crabs

Blue crabs live in tropical waters — think: the Caribbean — as well as subtropical waters, like the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean, says Jeffrey D. Shields, a professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary. They grow to about eight inches wide, maturing in a year, and boast a unique feature: a fifth pair of legs, like paddles, that help them swim especially well. “That’s why they’re called swimming crabs,” Shields explains. You’ve heard of soft-shell crabs. Those are blue crabs that have molted their shells. As Viverito explains, “In order to grow larger, crabs have to shed their old shell and form a new one. During this process, the crabs are without their hard covering for only a few days.” If caught during this time, they are considered “soft-shell” crabs, and are eaten whole after minimal cleaning, he says.

Depending on what part of a blue crab you’re eating, the texture can change. “If you are enjoying jumbo lump, the texture is delicate and soft without being mushy,” says Austin Sumrall, the chef and owner of White Pillars in Biloxi, Mississippi, while the claw meat is a little firmer. “It makes the crab so versatile,” which allows you to “get many options from the same crab,” Sumrall explains.

For example, at White Pillars, Sumrall uses blue crab in everything from a crab avocado toast to a baked eggplant dish complete with mozzarella and marinara. Its flavor — sweet and even a little nutty, with a buttery and briny bite that can come from Gulf waters — also aids in its versatility.

At home, you’ll likely boil or steam blue crabs whole, says Bruce Mattel, senior associate dean of culinary arts at The Culinary Institute of America. “Some of the best parties start with steaming a bushel of live blue crabs, spreading out newspaper on picnic tables, and dumping the crabs onto newspaper,” he says. “Give everyone mallets and small forks, and let the fun begin.”

Gaudet recommends boiling blue crabs in salty, spicy water with lemons, garlic and potatoes, then dipping their meat in a homemade sauce with Southern spices, or in mayonnaise or ketchup. Or, if you want to work with soft-shell crabs, Gaudet says that you can use a pair of scissors to remove the parts you won’t want to eat — the eyes, mouth and lungs. Then, season and batter the crabs with your choice of breading and spices, and fry them until they’re just golden brown.

Dungeness Crabs

Dungeness crabs are cold-water crabs that live in the northwest Pacific Ocean, says Romuald N. Lipcius, a professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary. Their moniker comes from a Washington town of the same name that was made famous for its capture of this kind of crab, says Shields, but you can find them in Canada and Alaska too.

Dungeness crabs take as many as 10 years to mature — their coldwater habitats prohibit them from growing faster — but the males can grow to the size of a dinner plate, says Shields. To grow, Dungeness crabs shed their cuticles. They may shed 20 times over their lives, Shields says. Female Dungeness crabs are not allowed to be harvested to ensure the longevity of this species.

Mattel describes their flavor as sweet, succulent and high in natural umami flavor. Dungeness crabs have both light and dark meat; sweet, white meat is found in their bodies, while their legs and claws are made of mainly richer, darker meat, says Viverito, who adds that most recipes will call for the crabs’ white meat.

To cook Dungeness crabs, Mattel recommends steaming or boiling them whole, then digging out the meat. Truthfully, it’s easiest to watch a video for how to open them up, but Viverito describes the process this way: Flip the crab’s body upside down, and use a knife to pry off the flap of the shell, called its “apron.” Then, turn the crab right-side up, and lift off its top shell. (You can keep the shells to use later in stock, Viverito says.) Take out the membrane covering the crabmeat, as well as the lungs, stomach and gills. Then you can remove the white meat from the body and crack open legs and claws for the dark meat.

You can use the dark meat in soups, Viverito says, or add white meat to a stir fry. Mattel says the white meat also makes a wonderful crab cocktail — cooked white crabmeat is delicious cold. If the recipe you choose calls for dark meat, look for a crab with fatter legs and meatier claws.

King Crabs

There’s a reason they’re called king crabs. Like Dungeness crabs, their bodies can grow to be the size of a dinner plate, but king crabs’ legs can grow to be as long as two feet, Shields says. Also like Dungeness crabs, king crabs take as many as 10 years to mature and live in the cold waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean. (The biggest population of king crabs lives in the Bering Sea, along the coast of Alaska.) But they live deep in those waters — as deep as 150 feet, Lipcius says.

Another thing that separates king crabs from Dungeness crabs, as well as blue and snow crabs, is that they’re not true crabs, Lipcius says. They’re actually descended from a hermit crab, he says.

And when you handle king crabs, you may want to wear gloves, Shields warns: “They’re really spiny,” he describes, with pointy, thorn-like protrusions covering their big bodies and long legs.

There are three kinds of king crab: red, blue and golden, each with its own flavor profile. Red king crab is sweet, succulent, and rich, says Viverito, and has white meat with a tint of red. It’s the most “prized” of the three types of king crab, Viverito says, because it is “the largest and has the most potent flavor.” Blue king crab is also sweet, but milder than red king crab. And golden, or brown, king crab is milder still, Viverito says, and less sweet than either red or blue king crab.

The meat in king crabs’ claws and legs — the part you’ll eat — is firm, but flakes apart easily when chewed, says Viverito. Because of this, most markets will only sell you king crab legs rather than the whole crab. Mattel says king crab legs are almost always processed, cooked and frozen at sea, which means cooking them is as easy as heating them and serving them with melted butter.

To heat king crab, Viverito suggests steaming them for six to 10 minutes. To get to the meat, you can crack open the claws with a seafood cracker or carefully with the handle of a knife, Viverito says.

Snow Crabs

Also known as “queen” crabs, snow crabs are cold-water crabs that live in the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as the Bering Sea. They can take as many as 10 years to grow to maturity, and live as many as 20 years, says Lipcius. While they resemble king crabs — snow crabs have long legs, too — they’re typically more slender and weigh less: King crabs can weigh more than 20 pounds, he says, while snow crabs usually weigh no more than five pounds.

Snow crabs get their name not from the cold waters in which they live, explains Viverito, but from the snow-white color of their meat. The two species of snow crabs — chi onoecetes bairdi and chionoecetes opilio — are both prized for their sweet, mild and subtle flavor. Re gardless of the species, snow crabs’ meat is more fibrous than that of king crab, says Viverito, but still very tender.

Like king crab, snow crab at Rouses is sold already cleaned and cooked, making this crab another safe choice for home cooks unfamiliar with cooking crabmeat. To eat them, Viverito recommends steaming the meat for just a few minutes, then serving them with melted butter.

While snow crab can be used in other dishes, “their subtle flavor is usually lost through use of spices and is enhanced with just a little sweet fat from the butter,” Viverito warns, and Mattel agrees. How ever, Mattel says you can also use snow crabs to garnish dishes, such as salads, risotto, pasta, or soup. “It is less expensive than king crab yet has a similar look,” Mattel says.

Stone Crabs

From time to time, depending on availability, you might spot another crab in Rouses Markets: the stone crab.

Like blue crabs, stone crabs live in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic Ocean, in mostly shallow waters, says Lipcius. But unlike the blue crab, which is a swimming crab, stone crabs are walking crabs — closer, in that re spect, to king and Dungeness crabs. “A unique feature of the stone crab is that only the claws are taken, and the crab is released back into the water, where it will regrow the lost claws,” says Lipcius. How, you ask? All crabs are capable of selfautotomy, which means that when a predator grabs a claw, “the crab will autotomize the claw along a plane at the base of the claw with out bleeding,” he says.

To be taken, the claws must be at least 2.75 inches long, Viverito says. And because they’re very perish able, these claws are often steamed and chilled on fishermen’s boats — which means that by the time they’ve reached the grocery store or seafood market, they’re already “cooked” for you.

Inside, a stone crab has very flaky meat, which Viverito describes as a “cross between a shrimp and a lobster.” Its flavor is sweet, Mattel says, but decidedly less briny than that of blue crabs.

Because only their claws are har vested, only their claws are sold. So, when it comes to cleaning and eat ing these crabs, you’ll only have to worry about the claws. “While most types of crabs are served whole, stone crab claws are prepped like shrimp cocktail — cooked, cracked and served as a meaty finger food — often with a side of creamy mustard-based sauce,” Viverito explains. You can whip up such a sauce by whisking one cup may onnaise with two tablespoons of half-and-half, four teaspoons of dry mustard, two teaspoons of Worces tershire sauce and one teaspoon of steak sauce until smooth, Viverito says. Season with salt and pepper, then chill and serve later.

Crab and Sweet Corn Chowder

PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO