Which crab tasted better? The yellow male or the red female? I should have gotten two males or two females to make this a more balanced taste test. Some fishmongers swear that female crabs have a sweeter flesh. I’ve definitely found that to be the case when it comes to Blue Crabs from the Atlantic. But with the Rock Crabs of Santa Barbara the opposite was true! The red female had a more pungent briny flavor…a little bit of scallion on the finish. The yellow male had way more sweetness and was the favorite of the day. The male also had slightly larger claws with boatloads of meat inside. I was surprised because the crew at Sea Fever Seafood said there wasn't any difference, yet these clearly were two different crabs. Don't get me wrong, both of them were fantastic and very easy to clean. I think one thing that made the female stronger flavored was the fact that she was full of roe which was wicked pungent but beautiful in its rusty color.
Do I need to give you a recipe? There’s nothing to this, cooking live crabs is really simple. Like I mentioned in the blog post, I had no desire to spice the water or flavor the crabs beyond a hot bath of sea salt and boiling water. The crew of Sea Fever Seafood recommended I do the same. So I poured a fair amount of cheap sea salt into a big stockpot…maybe a 1/3 cup for every gallon? I did it to taste and when I thought the water tasted like the sea I knew I had it just right.
Bring that salted water to a rolling boil and plunge your LIVE crabs in. 15 minutes is all it takes. Carefully remove the crabs and rinse them under cold water in the sink and when you can handle them, pull the claws and legs off before tearing into the cavity to remove the gills and get to the flesh inside.
You have a good 24 hours to eat the cooked crab. You can also freeze any leftover portions for 3 months, just let ‘em defrost in your fridge and you are all set.
Have a crab boil! OK, so maybe finding these beautiful rock crabs outside of Southern California is gonna be tricky but that doesn't have to stop you. Get out to your local seafood store and see what they’ve got and what they recommend. I’ve seen some great looking live crabs in tanks at Asian markets around the world. Boiling a bunch of crabs is fun, easy, cheap and really REALLY yummy! So grab some friends, get a big pot on the boil, cover a table in newspaper to catch all the shells and drippings and practice your technique cracking open some beers before you get to the claws. GOOD TASTY TIMES!
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